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THE 

FOUNDING 
OF MOBILE 

1702-1718 




PETER J. 

HAMILTON 

L.L.D. 



THE FOUNDING 
of MOBILE 

1702-1718 

STUDIES IN THE HISTORY 
OF THE FIRST CAPITAL OF 
THE PROVINCE OF LOUIS- 
IANA, WITH MAP SHOWING 
ITS RELATION TO THE 
PRESENT CITY 



PETER J. HAMILTON, L.L.D. 

AUTHOR OF 
"COLONIAL MOBILE," ETC. 






MOBILE 

Commercial Printing Company 

1911 



k 

PREFATORY NOTE. 

These studies were made in connection with the 
celebration in May, 1911, of the Bicentenary of 
the founding of Mobile and in their original form 
were published in the Mobile Register. They have 
now been revised and it is hoped improved. 

The map at the end was drawn under the super- 
vision of Wright Smith, the City Engineer of Mo- 
bile, and shows the French town relative to the ex- 
isting American city. The route of the bicenten- 
nial parade around the French limits is also indi- 
cated. At the turning corners granite posts are 
placed in the sidewalk. 

These studies are perhaps disconnected, but centre 
about the institutions of the time when Mobile was 
the First Creole Capital. They are based upon man- 
uscript and early sources and are in a large measure 
independent and supplementary to my "Colonial 
Mobile." 

•*'. '• P. J. HAMILTON. 

Mobile, 1911. 



Gift 
Th, Society 

JUL * » 19U 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



I. FORT LOUIS. 

Page. 

I. — French Colonization 5 

II.— Vieux Fort 8 

III.— First Directory 12 

IV. — Bienville 's Coat of Arms 17 

V. — Religion 21 

VI.— The Social Side 21 

VII.— A Colonial Menu 28 

VIII.— The Mosquito Fleet 31 

II. MOBILE. 

IX. — The removal as Told by the Removers. . . . 35 

X.— New Mobile 11 

XL— The Great Hat Question 50 

XII. — A Chateau on the Bay 51 

XIII. — Infant Industries 57 

XIV. — Colonial Homes 62 

XV. — Place Names that Survive G5 

111. CROZAT AND AFTER. 

XVI. — Colonial Government 69 

XVII. — Expansion 71 

XVIIL— The First Law Book 78 

XIX.— The Soldiers 83 

XX.— First Shipping List 88 

XXL — Cradle and the Grave 92 

XXIL— Indian Trade 98 

XXIIL— Conclusion 102 

(Map showing relation of French town to modern 
city at end.) 



I. 

FORT LOUIS. 

I.— FRENCH COLONIZATION. 

Of all the movements of races, those following the 
discovery of America are the most interesting. They 
brought our ancestors to America, dispossessed the 
aboriginal tribes, and changed the current of the 
world's history. Being within historical times, the 
facts can be easily traced. The settlement of the 
coast of the Gulf of Mexico has features of local im- 
portance, but cannot be understood except as a part 
of a world movement, a readjustment of population. 

Colonization in all ages has had several motifs, 
and it so happened that Spain, who was first in the 
field, chose one of only temporary value. Columbus 
had stumbled on America on his way to India, but 
the Spaniards found so much gold and silver in 
South America and Mexico that they were willing 
enough to leave India to be fought for by the Portu- 
gese, French and English. Even in North America, 
Spain, through DeSoto and others, explored rather 
than colonized. The idea of developing colonies for 
the benefit of the colpnists was left for our day, but 
that of developing products to be manufactured for 
the home market was to dawn upon the French and 
English, although it did not upon the Spaniards. 
Possibly that country will win in the long run as a 
colonizer which has the most surplus population. 
Spain had none to spare, but it so happened that an 

5 



economic readjustment in England, followed by re- 
ligious persecutions, drove many yoemen to a sea- 
faring life. This brought knowledge of the new 
world and supplied it with colonists. How far this 
was true of France remained to be seen, but cer- 
tainly its gradually centralizing government was 
able to use for any purpose, at home of abroad, 
whatever means that country afforded. 

The two nations settled Virginia and Canada in 
almost the same year, French Quebec in 1606 being 
only one year ahead of English Jamestown. It was 
to lead to a long and interesting rivalry in coloniza- 
tion. Over a century and a half were to pass before 
the result was decided. It is true that the French 
had made earlier attempts. Both Brazil and Caro- 
lina were colonized under Huguenot auspices, and 
so short-lived was Coligny's power that both were 
unsuccessful. In North America characteristically 
Virginia was a commercial venture. Massachusetts 
a few years later was a religious experiment, while 
Canada was not a popular but a royal effort. Eug- 
land took her third colonial step in colonizing on 
the old French ground of Carolina, just as the 
French LaSalle made his famous prise de possession 
at the mouth of the Mississippi River in 1682. Eng- 
lish colonization was confined to the Atlantic coast, 
and expanded in a gradual advance as county or 
township was settled; the French colonization lay 
in the occupation of the St. Lawrence basin by a 
nobility, who settled their lands with retainers, but 
allied to this was the exploration by coureurs de 
bois, — woodsmen, — and voyageurs, who carried 
French influence everywhere. 

Quebec and Montreal had been settled upon the 



great northern French River. The Mississippi, how- 
ever, ran not through Laurentian rocks, but through 
au alluvial country which furnished no good resting 
place for a capital. The St. Lawrence was wide, 
and a sailing vessel of the day could ascend it as 
easily as it could go anywhere at sea. The Missis- 
sippi was not such an arm of the sea. It was wide, 
to be sure, but deep and winding. Sailing vessels 
could make little headway against its current and 
along its tortuous course. For that reason no per- 
manent settlement was made near its mouth. La- 
Salle had such a plan, but the practical Iberville 
thought a small earthwork sufficient to hold pos- 
session there, while his capital was to be on the sea- 
coast. Temporarily he might have his headquarters 
at Biloxi. but he explored for a more fertile seat for 
his colony. 

Wherever it might be, it would be another seat 
of empire. The British began with their two types, 
Cavalier Jamestown and Puritan Plymouth. The 
French had Quebec in the north, and now in the 
south were to establish auother capital. Two fea- 
tures stand out. With the French there was greater 
.leadership. Champlain in the north and Iberville 
in the south were greater names than the British 
colonizers furnished. Again, the French penetrated 
further and acquired a greater hegemony over the 
natives than did the English yeomen, who hugged 
the coast and stayed close together. Perhaps the 
national characteristics of brilliancy and pluck 
were pitted against each other, and it would be in- 
teresting to see how they worked out the future be- 
fore them. The British had the advantage in num- 
bers and in foci ; for there were when Mobile was 



founded, not only Boston and Williamsburg, which 
had succeeded Plymouth and Jamestown, but con- 
quered New Amsterdam and pacific Philadelphia 
between, and the new Charleston was becoming a 
strong ceutre of influence. Against those could be 
opposed by the French only Quebec and Montreal in 
the north and Mobile in the south ; but they con- 
trolled the greatest river basins in America, were 
united in spirit, and were wielded by the greatest 
king of modern times. 

The rivalry was not unequal and the building of 
the southern capital was carrying out the plan to 
make a greater New France. There was little to 
choose between the qualities of the two races. There 
might be a choice between their institutions, but 
new conditions would equalize these. If France 
could spare as many people as England, and the 
colonies of both races multiplied equally, there 
would be a New England on the Atlantic, and a 
New France occupying the much greater St. Law- 
rence and Mississippi Valleys. In the working out 
of this lies the import of the story of Louisiana 
and her first capital in the time of Iberville and his 
brothers. 

II— VIEUX FORT. 

It seems that the original condition of mankind 
was that of families and clans, cither as wandering 
herdsmen or settled agriculturists. The town or 
city was a gradual evolution, which reached its per- 
L'ection among the Romans. When the Romans sent 
out colonists, however, they made the town the basis 
of their colonization, and the European nations fol- 
lowed suit in their efforts of the seventeenth and 
eighteenth centuries. It Avas an inversion of the 



natural process, and yet probably a necessity of the 
case. The colony must have a centre, a capital, both 
for communication with the home country and for 
influence among the natives. For this reason the 
story of the capital is of importance. In fact, to 
some extent the capital was the colony. 

When it becomes necessary, therefore, to select a 
site for his colony, Iberville made a careful inspec- 
tion of all the Gulf coast west of Pensacola. The 
Mississippi current was too strong, and the lands 
near its mouth too marshy to admit of settlement. 
The post at Biloxi was never intended for a capital, 
but merely as a temporary settlement. 

The four great Indian tribes of the south were 
the numerous Choctaws about Mobile and Tombig- 
bee Rivers, the warlike Chickasaws between the 
sources of the Tombigbee and the Mississippi, the 
Muscogees. whom the French called the Alibamons 
from the lowest subdivision on their river, and the 
Cherokees in the mountains behind the English set- 
tlements on the Atlantic. There were many other 
tribes, but even on the Mississippi each was few 
in numbers. Strange to say, the presence of a small 
tribe on Mobile River had much to do with the se- 
lection of the site, for the Mobilians there were not 
only thought to be the influential Movila whom De- 
Soto had all but exterminated in 1540, but theirs 
was the trade jargon or international language un- 
derstood from the Atlantic to the Mississippi. Some 
still flourished, among the Alibamons near modern 
Claiborne. Both to watch the English and and in- 
fluence the natives, therefore, a site on the Mobile 
River, which was made up of the Alabama and the 



Tombigbee, was appropriate. On the other hand, 
Mobile Bay offered great advantages. At its mouth 
was Dauphine Island, which was found to have an 
admirable harbor at the east end, which was named 
Port Dauphin. There was also an eastern entrance 
to the bay, but that by Port Dauphin was thought 
more available. Ships could unload at Port Dau- 
phin and have their cargoes transferred by traver- 
siers and other boats to the river settlement. The 
river bluff and island port, therefore, could make 
np a capital, and this was what the fertile mind of 
Iberville determined. 

On his second voyage, while lying sick in Pensa- 
cola Bay, he directed Sauvole and Bienville to move 
everything from Biloxi to Massacre Island with a 
view of making a permanent establishment upon 
the river sixteen leagues from the Gulf. 

The new town was founded on January 16, 1702, 
and work continued incessantly. On Mareh 19, La- 
Salle, who performed the functions of commissaire 
de marine, arrived and found the streets aligned, 
the magasin completed, and the palisaded fort of 
four bastions ready for use. The settlement was 
reached from a landing, where a small creek makes 
into the river, and one ascended the hill to the south 
by the main highway along the river bluff. At in- 
tervals were cross streets, named for residents, and 
the southern extremity of the town was Port Louis, 
sometimes called de la Mobile and sometimes de la 
Louisiane. In front of it on the river bank was the 
powder magazine, and west of the town was a 
ravine, and beyond a slight outpost. The fort was 
on a bend and overlooked the river in both direc- 
tions, while across were the marshy Islands of the 

10 



delta, which were to afford some rich agricultural 
grounds. 

The town gradually grew. In 1704 a church was 
built near the fort by the liberality of Gervaise, a 
pious priest who w T as unable to come out, and north- 
west on the sources of the creek was the Seminaire, 
where the Seminary priests lived. The west side of 
the fort was taken up by the chapel, a large building 
which served also as church for the settlement. As 
the town was built southwards, a well was dug a 
block or two inwards from the fort, and about it 
was the Marche, the assembly and playground of 
Mobile. There was also a kind of resort on the 
banks of the creek, and in the woods behind the 
town the little cemetery, which was, like all grave- 
yards, to grow in size. From the yellow fever epi- 
demic in 1704 it was a populous spot. 

In 1702 Iberville brought over four families, and, 
despite occasional want, — as in 1706 acutely, — all 
learned to love the place. When D'Artaguette came 
in 1708 to investigate the complaints of the priest 
and of the commissaire he found that all had been 
done which could be expected, and the colonists 
unanimously declared themselves satisfied with 
their surroundings. All they wanted was horses to 
help cultivate the soil. 

A traversier was built and plied regularly to Port 
Dauphin, and gradually all along the river, and even 
on the bay shore, French settlements arose, some- 
times villages, but generally habitans with their lit- 
tle farms. 

The settlement was double in character, it is look- 
ed towards France and towards the interior. It 
was the seat of trade and diplomacy with the three 

11 



great tribes up the rivers, and even with the Chero- 
kees beyond, and as a result the influence of the 
English was soon broken. They had traded to the 
Mississippi River, but this great wedge soon all but 
shut them out. The Choctaws became firm allies of 
the French, and the French contended on equal 
terms witli the British for influence among the up- 
per tribes. 

The new settlement marked a distinct advance in 
town building in America. All others founded be- 
fore it, from Jamestown and Quebec to Charleston, 
were within walls and fortifications. Even the land 
of pacific Philadelphia had been bought from the 
natives. French influence, however, was such that 
no cession was needed from the Indians for the set- 
tlement on the Mobile, and no walls or fortifications 
were built about it. It was open to the world. It 
is true that in its centre was a fort, but this was 
more for protection against Europeans than against 
the natives. In none of the correspondence or state 
papers of the day is there expressed the slightest 
fear of the Indians. Mobile from its foundation to 
the end of the French regime was the centre of the 
Indian trade and diplomacy, and only at one time 
was it in any danger from the natives, and that was 
long after it ceased to be the capital. 

III.— FIRST DIRECTORY OF MOBILE. 
Fort Louis de la Mobile at Twenty-seven Mile 
Bluff was established in 1702 and despite wars in 
Europe soon became a flourishing town. A map 
was made the year of the foundation, and one 
marked "uu peu avant 1711" not only shows a 
place of double the size, but indicates its growth to 
have been southwardly. 

12 



The first thing which attracts attention on this 
map is the fort, which seems to be looked at from 
above, — as if there was an aeroplane in use. Fort 
Louis is square, with bastions at each corner. From 
the northeast bastion on the river floats the white 
flag of France, and the west side of the fort is 
wholly taken up by a large church with steeple, 
surmounted by the predecessor of M. Rostand's 
Chantecler. The parapets are all covered, the 
roofs being plainly visible. The fort is near the 
river and on the north, west and south sides of it 
lies the large "Place Royale", — doubtless the drill 
ground of that day. 

As at first built the town sloped up to the left 
from a little stream falling into the river, just as 
with the village of Longueuil on the St. Lawrence. 

In 1702 the town extended from the creek (ruis- 
seau) about three blocks down to the fort. On the 
new map as much of a town as previously existed 
is shown to have grown up west of the fort, and an- 
other section almost as large southwest of the fort 
about the market place. While houses are not indi- 
cated, we are told that they were there in abund- 
ance, and the names of the residents are given in de- 
tail. Many are the same as found on the map of 1702, 
but there are a number of names peculiar to this 
second map. 

The town might be said to lie in three or four dis- 
tricts. The old settlement was that on the creek to 
the north of the fort. On the creek itself was the 
brickyard near the river and what may be a pleasure 
report (Beau sejour) further up stream, while north 
of the creek was nothing but the woods. Higher up 
the creek was the Seminaire, residence of the priests 

13 



from Quebec, with their garden adjacent. Near it 
was the place of greatest interest, — the ' ' simitiere, " 
where, without doubt, the great explorer Tonty lies 
buried with his iron hand. A branch from the 
creek heads up by the cemetery. 

What we may call the second district of the town 
Lay on three streets running west from Place Royale. 
This section was thickly settled. 

The south district of the town was growing up 
about the market place, "le Marche", with the brick 
well in the centre. The king reserved some land im- 
mediately south of the Place Royale, and Bienville, 
with an eye to the future, secured a tract south of 
this, perhaps, with a view of making Bienville's 
First Addition when the town grew. 

The highway running along the river is. not 
named, nor are those bounding the city on the west 
and on the south. The other streets are very much 
named; for the same street will change its name 
every block or so. quite as in the Paris of that day. 
Parallel with the river and running through the 
west side of the Place Royale was the street which 
bore the name St. Francois at its northern extremity 
and r urther south the names of Ste. Marie, de Rues- 
savel, Chateauguay. Next west of that was Boute- 
ville, St. Joseph, de Tonti, Beeancour, Juchero, and 
St. Denis. Next west was the lasl street with a 
name, called Seminaire where it begins opposite the 
Seminary, and then Pontchartrain further south. 

The highways running east and west change 
names in a somewhat similar manner. The first was 
near the river (-idled Charpentie, and further west 
Marais (marsh). Next down the river was the 
street of the Jesuits, bearing also the name LaSalle 

14 



and St. Anne. Streets running west from the cor- 
ners of the Place Royale were called respectively for 
Yberville and Serignie, his brother. One between 
was named for the distinguished soldier Boisbril- 
lant, but towards the west bore also the name of 
Gue, — which is difficult to understand, unless the 
ford (gue) ran across the marsh which existed west 
of the town. The last street towards the south was 
called for Bienville. 

Among the prominent residents w r ere Yberville, 
Bienville, St. Denis, LaSalle and Boisbrillant, and 
that most remarkable of all liars in the history of 
the world, — Matheiu Sagean, who pretended to have 
explored the whole interior of North America. 

Some one has said that a dictionary is interesting 
reading, but changes the subject quite often. De- 
spite a corresponding defect, the first directory of 
Mobile given by streets will be found of interest. 
Some of the names were familiar for many years 
afterwards. 

On the unnamed front street beginning at the 
north and going south were Pouarie, La Loir, Le 
Conte, Saucie, Jesuits, LaSalle, and D 'Yberville. In 
the same way on St. Fransois was a long list, al- 
though at the Place Royale, the street had but one 
side. On it were Dame Dieu, L'Esperance, La 
Fontaine, Goulard, Jaque Boullet & ses gens, Talle- 
ment, Boutin, Jesuits, Lamery, Francoeur, Trepag- 
nier, Claude, Minet, St. Marie, LeSueur, Le Vasseur, 
Boisbriliant, Place Royale, La Loir, Gerard, Sa 
varie, Boyer, Le Moine, Louis Le Dieu, Sabastien Le 
Breton, Alexandre, LaFleur, L 'Assure. What sort 
of people were M. Dieu and Dame Dieu ? 

On St. Joseph street were in the first place Beau 

15 



Sejonr. which may be conjectured to-be a pleasure 
resort, — at least for mosquitoes there by the creek, 
— and then follow on both sides of the street the 
longest list of all, — La Chenesgaulle, Charle Dumont, 
Marais, Dumont cadet, Jardin du Seminaire, Jean le 
can, Magdeleine Poulard, Jacque La Pointe, Denis 
Durbois, Chavier & Brother, Dominique, Francois 
Montreuil, Ayote, De Tonti, Charleville, Pierie, La- 
folett, Jacque La Barre, Lezie Larcois, Rouffain, 
Charle Regnault, Jean Alexandre, Beccancour, La- 
force, La Fleur, Duhaut Menij Juchero, Pierre 
Isogui, Antoine Priau, Francois Marie bourne, St. 
Denis. St. Marin, Alexie Gry, Birott, Andre Pene- 
gau and Robillard. 

On Seminaire was the "Simitiere" and then the 
following: Pierre Le Sueur, Roy, De Launy, Neveu, 
Neveu L'aine, LaLiberte, Des List, Nicolas Laberge, 
Francois Trado, Le Boenf, La Valle, Le Source, 
Manuelle du hautmeny, Chauvin L'aine, La 
Frenniere. 

On the unnamed west boundry street, all on the 
cast side, were the following: Rochon, Charli, 
Legal. Antoine Rinard, Martin Moquin, Zacare Dra- 
peau, and Langlois. 

This does not quite exhaust the list, for there were 
some residents on the cross streets who were not on 
corners, and thus not also on the north and south 
streets. In order to complete the list and make one 
feel at home in walking about these early streets, 
they are subjoined as follows: On Charpentir 
street were Jean Partie, Condits and Louis Dore. 

On Jesuit street were Le Vetias, Regnault and 
Alain. On the north side of the Place Royalle was 
Poudrie. On Yberville street was Joseph La Pointe. 

16 



Dardine, Pransois Hainelle, Potie, Berichon and 
Darocque. On Boisbrillant wep LeGascon, Cour- 
tois and Le Nantois. On Serignie street were five, 
as follows : Charle Miret, Pierre Ardouin, Jean 
Francois Levasseur, St. Lambert de haut Meni, and 
Michel Philippe. Last of all on Bienville street came 
the famous Matieu Sajan and Jean Saucie. 

Many of the leaders were Canadians and not a few 
of the habitans. Trudant was a carpenter from 
Longueuil, as were Lapointe and Poudrie, and Bon- 
oist soon came also. Montreal was the mother of 
Mobile. 

IV.— BIENVILLE'S COAT OF ARMS. 

In the flourishing city of Montreal they have not 
only kept the names of the old streets — one named 
for Charles Le Moyne — and marked with bronze 
tablets the prominent historical spots, but some of 
the colonial buildings have been preserved intact. 
The Chateau de Ramezay, the residence of the 
colonial governors, is now the home of historical 
society, and its wall, gardens and rooms have been 
restored as nearly as possible to their original con- 
dition. In the hall containing portraits of famous 
Canadians stand several of the Le Moyne family, 
including Charles, the immigrant from Normandy, 
and several of bis distinguished sons. Amongst 
these is Jean Baptiste, whom the father named de 
Bienville, from a spot dear to him in the old coun- 
try. 

Charles le Moyne was one of the early settlers of 
Ville Marie, or Montreal, and in recognition of dis- 
tinguished colonial services received several grants 
of land. One was Longueuil, granted in 1657 on 

17 



the south side of the St. Lawrence, almost opposite 
Montreal. After a while he seems to have built a 
chateau over there and lived in Longueuil during 
the summer. He was seigneur of this concession and 
of others. 

Among Canadian scholars it is agreed that the 
seigneurial system was the making of Canada. It 
was based upon land grants, having a front on the 
►St. Lawrence river and extending back in depth 
several times the front, subdivided by the seigneur 
among his own tenants. A common road was re- 
quired to be made along the river from one seig- 
neurie to another, but the most interesting features 
were those within each concession. The seigneur 
had a manor house surrounded by his own grounds, 
generally on some commanding knoll, while the 
fields of his tenants stretched far and wide. As far 
as possible each one was given a front on the St. 
Lawrence, but this was not always feasible. They 
may still be traced in the long, narrow fields. The 
profits of the seigneur consisted of his rents, per- 
haps in produce, later generally commuted into a 
small money payment, and in the rights and banali- 
ties which the tenants were bound to respect. If 
the seigneur had a mill, the tenant must grind his 
wheat there for a certain consideration. Perhaps 
even more important was the right of holding court, 
— with high, low or middle justice. — varying accord- 
ing to the extent of his jurisdiction, and incidental ly 
bringing in fees and fines. The Seigneurie of Lon- 
gueuil was two leagues on the river by almost double 
in depth. It had its mill, landing place and light- 
house. And a delightful place of residence it is, 
stretching now as a village along a rambling street 

18 



overlooking the St. Lawrence, faced by old-fash- 
ioned story and a half houses, with their galleries, 
the ancestor of our own, and a beautiful church 
guarding it all. 

Here Bienville spent much of his childhood, and 
he naturally desired to introduce the same system 
into Louisiana. Originally the feudal system was 
based on the idea, common even now, of renting 
one's land for services rendered, but in time it had 
hardened into very oppressive services. Although 
it worked well in Canada, for some reason Louis 
XIV and his successors felt that the seigneurial plan 
was not applicable on the Gulf. From the first the 
king steadfastly declined to erect seigneuries in that 
province, and when at last he did it was only on a 
part of the Mississippi River below Manchac, and 
the system seems to have had little influence upon 
the development of the colony. Bienville, therefore, 
never rose to the dignity of a seigneur, although the 
shape of the grants about Mobile was based on the 
seigneuries of Canada. 

Bienville obtained Horn Island, but not by a seig- 
neurial tenure. He owned a whole block of land 
on the south of both Mobiles, one bounded on the 
west by St. Charles street, — -now our St. Emanuel. 
This seems to be a reminder of Montreal. St. Charles 
street there was named for the patron saint of the 
elder Le Moyne, and the existence of a St. Charles 
street in Mobile and of one in New Orleans, — both 
cities founded by Bienville, — seems to point back to 
a memory of childhood. 

Bienville was called Sieur, but that is compli- 
mentary and not an abbrevation of seigneur; for ex- 
cept in a military way, Bienville seems to have had 

1.9 



no title. He had, so far as we know, no individual 
coast of arms, but the family were proud of that of 
his father, Charles Le Moyne, used at Longueuil, and 
preserved in the Chateau de Ramezay. 

As with all others, it consists of a large shield 
surmounted by a crest, the helmet itself surmounted 
by a man standing, with an arrow, in a log fort. 
Underneath is the motto, "Labor et Concordia." 
On each side is a standing Indian, a man and woman 
holding an arrow. The main thing, however, is the 
shield and its ornaments. The upper third is red. 
and on it are two gold stars, five pointed, with a 
gold crescent between them. The lower two-thirds 
of the shield has a blue ground, and on it are found, 
placed in a triangle, three gold stars, also five point- 
ed, and each with a gold rose in its centre. It is odd 
that two such antipodal men as Martin Luther and 
Charles Le Moyne should have the rose as an em- 
blem. To ( 'atholic, and Lutheran it smelt as sweet. 

The meaning of the different devices would take 
us far back into heraldry, for each means some- 
thing; but at least Bienville lived up to the family 
motto of "'Labor and Concord." These arms, be it 
noted, were not those of the barony of Longueuil, as 
such; for this was not created until 1700, in the 
hands of Charles Le Moyne. Jr.. Bienville's oldesl 
loot her, while Bienville was in Louisiana. The 
arms were granted their father in 1668, before Bien- 
ville's birth, and were in some sense shared by all 
eleven Le .Moyne children who made the name 
famous throughout the world. H was nut the fash- 
ion then to have an engraved crest fur a letterhead; 
Mil se;ds were more used than they are now, and 
Bienville was a good correspondent when occasion 

20 



offered. So we may suppose that just as he affixed 
an official seal to his dispatches, he sealed his pri- 
vate letters, — as one a year later to this much loved 
brother Charles, — with the Le Moyne star, rose and 
crescent. Mobile has her own seal, showing ship 
and cotton bale, "Agriculture and Commerce;" but 
may be even in our day Bienville's motto of "Labor 
and Concord" would not be wholly amiss. 

V.— RELIGION. 

The ancients, from Babylon to Rome, founded no 
colony without sacrifices to the deity, and in modern 
times one of the objects alleged for colonization was 
the spread of Christianity. The French were no 
exception. The priest voyaged ahead even of the 
voyageur. When the Le Moynes came to the Gulf 
missionaries from the Seminary of Quebec 
were found among the Indians of the Mississippi. 
DeSoto's Dominican friars were paralleled by the 
Jesuit Douge and his colleagues under Iberville. 
One of the earliest and best loved of the Seminary 
priests was Davion, who sometimes left his lonely 
Mississippi vigil (where the Americans were after- 
wards to build Fort Adams) to mingle with his gen- 
ial countrymen at Biloxi and Mobile. 

The first entry in the venerable church registers 
of this post is by Davion, noting that he had baptized 
a little Indian boy, an Apalache, on September 6, 
1704. Douge seems not to have obeyed the royal 
ordinance of 1667 as to keeping a baptismal register, 
— possibly he needed none ; for, as far as is known, 
the first child was baptized October 4, 1704. 

If there had been any doubt, it was finally settled 
that Louisiana was within the spiritual jurisdiction 

21 



of the Bishop of Quebec, at that time the celebrated 
St. Vallier, and in July, 1704, he constituted Fort 
Louis a separate parish. It was without a regular 
pastor until September 28, 1704, when it fell to 
Davion's lot to induct La Vente with ceremonies 
recorded on a piece of paper made the first page of 
the register. "We read : 

"I, the undersigned priest and missionary apos- 
tolic, declare to all whom it may concern, that, the 
28th of September in the year of Salvation 1704, in 
virtue of letters of provision and collation granted 
and sealed July 20 of last year, by which Monseig- 
nenr, the most illustrious and reverend Bishop of 
Quebec, erects a parochial church in the place called 
Fort Louis of Louisiane, and of which he gives the 
cure and care to M. Henri Roulleaux De la Vente. 
missionary apostolic of the diocese of Bayeux, I have 
placed the said priest in actual and corporal posses- 
sion of the said parochial church and of all the 
rights belonging to it, after having observed the 
usual and requisite ceremonies, to-wit. by entrance 
into .lie church, sprinkling of holy water, kissing 
tiie high altar, touching the mass book, visiting the 
most sacred sacrament of the altar, and ringing the 
bills, which possession 1 certify that no one has op- 
posed. 

''Given in the church of Fort Louis the day of 
month and year above, in the presence of -lean Bap- 
tiste de Bienville, lieutenant of the king and com- 
mandant at the said fort. Pierre du Q. de Boisbriant, 
major, Nicolas de la Salle, clerk and performing 
function of commissaire of the marine. 

La Vente soon ran counter to Bienville and their 
unedifying quarrels lasted until La Vente returned 

22 



to France 1710 in a dying condition. His successor 
was Le Maire, who was friendly with the. governor. 
He came as a representative of the good Gervaise, 
whose means built the first church and parsonage. 

The church records are invaluable as giving 
names, occupations and sidelights on the colony. 
The test of religion, however, is the inspiration it 
affords for good living, and in Louisiana re- 
ligious influences were largely neutralized by the 
roving life of many of the colonists and the whiskey 
trade among the Indians. However, Mobile was no 
worse than the average pioneer settlement.- 

Louis XIV had banished the Protestants from 
France and would not even permit them to settle in 
Louisiana. His minister announced that the king 
had not chased the Huguenots out of France to let 
them found a republic in America. Difference in re- 
ligion was to have no little to do with the enmity 
between the British and the French colonies, and, 
so far as religion was concerned, they were to grow 
up independently and afford an instructive contrast. 
There was little difference, however, in the woods. 
The British woodranger was not more moral and 
not less artful than the French coureur de bois. 
Whatever might be the merits of a religion which 
approached God through the old church and im- 
posing forms as contrasted with a faith which dis- 
carded forms and sought in Maeaulay's words "to 
gaze full upon the intolerable brightness of the 
deity," it was not to appear when they came in con- 
tact with the natives. But on the other hand in 
self-denial the Jesuits of the Northwest were to be 
equalled by the fewer missionaries sent out from 
New England. 

23 



We generally think of the Jesuits as the pioneer 
Catholics of America, but, although they came down 
the Mississippi, the Bishop of Quebec soon substi- 
tuted the missionaries of his own Seminary, and the 
Jesuits were not active in the South. This seems 
strange when we remember how influential they 
were with Louis XIV. They were really the keepers 
of his conscience, but the Duke of Orleans was of a 
different mould. In the time of Law's Company the 
Mobile district was given over to the Carmelites, 
but in point of fact few of this small order ever came 
to America, and Jesuits are found on the headwaters 
of the Tombigbee and the Alabama. 

At Mobile there was a separate cure for the Apa- 
laches as well as for Dauphine Island, and with per- 
haps better judgment the priests did not follow the 
plan of the Spanish padres. They civilized rather 
than domesticated the Indians. 

On the whole the church did its duty by Louisiana, 
whether we look at the natives or at the colonists. 

VI.— THE SOCIAL SIDE. 

In early Mobile the houses were built close to- 
gether, partly as a reminder of the walled towns in 
France, and partly because of the sociable nature of 
the people. They would talk from window to win- 
dow, and often across the narrow streets, while the 
little front gallery was in some sense what Dr. 
Brinton would call the basis of social relations. 
Woman was here, as elsewhere, the centre of all 
social life, and woman has among the French always 
occupied an influential place. The two social foci 
were Woman and the Church. The ace of the ency- 

24 



clopedists had not quite come, and the French colon- 
ists were devout Catholics. 

If we stop to think of it, marriage, birth, sickness 
and death directly or indirectly make up a large 
part of all human life. The holy days, too — Christ- 
mas, Easter and different Saint's Days — were ob- 
served and tended to bring families and friends' to- 
gether. One of the favorite holidays was St. Louis 
Day, July 24, and it is odd that this should conform 
so closely to the two great modern holidays — Bastille 
Day and the American Fourth of July. Merry 
Mardi Gras also can be found observed from the 
times of Old Fort Louis at Twenty-seven Mile Bluff. 

Among the French the bride brought a dowry, 
which remained her own, but in Louisiana there was 
such a scarcity of women that dowry is not often 
mentioned. The king undertook to supply the -colon- 
ists with wives, and among the oddest cargoes ever 
shipped were those every few years of marriageable 
girls. There was a famous consignment of twenty- 
three by the Pelican in 1704, and the first after the 
removal was probably that of 1712. The Pelican 
girls have been remembered for their revolt against 
cornbread, which was new to them, but they should 
be remembered as the women whose husbands and 
children founded Mobile. That their names may be 
honored, they are given : Francoise Marie Anne de 
Boisrenaud, Jeanne Catherine de Beranhard, Jeanne 
Elizabeth Le Pinteux, Marie Noel de Mesnil, 
Gabrielle Savarit, Genevieve Burel, Marguerite 
Burel, Marie Therese Brochon, Angelique Broupn, 
Marie, Briard, Marguerite iTavernier. Elizabeth 
Deshays, Catherine Christophle, Marie Philippe, 
Louise Marguerite Houssean, Marie Magdeleine 

25 



Duanet, Marie Dufresne, Marguerite Guichard, 
Renee Gilbert, Louise Francoise Lefevre, Gabrielle 
Bonet, Marie Jeanne Marbe and Catherine Tour- 

nant. although the "N. P. P." after her name 
seems to indicate that she did not come. Maybe that 
is the origin of the tradition that one did not 
marry. It is pleasant to know that whatever was 
the ease after John Law undertook to boom Louisi- 
ana, the women brought while Mobile was the capi- 
tal were uniformly of good character and founded 
honored families. There was no Manon L'Escaut 
among them, of dubious if romantic story, and the 
best people could look back with pride to their Mo- 
bile origin. The social morality of that day was 
high, for the Regency had not yet come, and the 
(oiirt of Louis XIV had become sedate under 
Madame de Maintcnon. 

Education has assumed a much larger place with 
us than with these simple colonists, but it would be a 
mistake to think that there were no schools. Louis 
had subjected the church to the state, but within its 
limits the church exercised full jurisdiction not only 
over religion, but over education, — indeed education 
was a part of the duty of the priest or nun. The 
teaching Jesuits were not the official priests of Mo- 
bile, for these were missionaries of the Seminary of 
Quebec. Later came the Carmelites; but no mat- 
ter who they were, the priests as a rule were men of 
culture and earnestness. AVe learn nothing of the 
books they read, or of the school books of the chil- 
dren. Not only was the printing [tress unknown, but 
literature did not form the staple of family enter- 
tainment. Nevertheless the church records show 
that very many people could write, although later 

2fi 



the cross was often the method of signature. One of 
Cadillac's daughters made a cross and she was fresh 
from the schools of Canada. 

Cadillac was to bring with him quite a number of 
French "domestiques," but the usual servants of 
that day were little Indian slaves captured in war. 
There were not many negroes when Mobile was 
founded, — there were several at the Old Fort and 
only twenty in 1713. They began to be imported in 
numbers under John Law's Company. The slaves, 
Indian or African, were always baptized. 

The original settlers were called habitans, as in 
Canada, but the' second generation assumed the 
name of Creole. The word comes from the West 
Indies and mean indigenous. It is sometimes ap- 
plied to animals and fruits as well as to people. It 
came to mean people of French or Spanish extrac- 
tion who were born in Louisiana, old or new. 

The first Creole was Francois Le Camp, born in 
old Mobile in 1704. Father Le Camp was a lock- 
smith, a habitant from France or Canada. The lit- 
tle boy, however, being a native, was a Creole, the 
"First Creole," as he was affectionately called. This 
seems to have become a kind of title held successive- 
ly by people afterwards. 

It meant primarily persons of the purest white 
blood, and its use as applied to mulattoes is incorrect 
except in the sense that they, too, might be partly 
Latin in origin. Of Creoles in this sense of mixed 
blood we may have an instance in the modern Cajans 
near Mount Vernon. ' These are sometimes said to 
be descended from the gentle Acadians immortalized 
in Evangeline ; but gentleness can hardly be said to 
be a Cajan trait. More certainty attaches to the 

27 



Chastangs of Chastang Station, who are said to have 
the blood of Dr. -lean Chastang. While he was in 
Mobile the doctor lived on Spira & Pincus' corner, 
but he afterwards moved to the bluff named for him. 
The Chastang patois is French, but much corrupted 
by African and English. The settlement is a very 
interest ing one. 

The habitans lived a contented rather than a 
strenuous life. Amusement then as now was one of 
the French arts, and music and dancing were com- 
mon. We read of Pieard taking his "violon" with 
him when Bienville dispersed the people among the 
Indians to avoid starvation, and Pieard taught the 
dark Nassitoche girls on Lake Pontchartrain the 
minnel and other dances familiar among the French 
a1 Mobile. Penicaut's best girl, by the way, was a 
Nassitoche. Of course wine was used, but the evil 
side of liquor seems to have been largely confined to 
its sale to the Indians. The coureurs de bois were 
intemperate in every way, but the habitans learned 
to live a plain and healthy life. 

VII.— A COLONIAL BILL OF FARE. 

It was the time of Louis XIV, soon to be followed 
by the Regency, when extravagance in dress and at 
table was the order of the day. Of course, Mobile 
was not Versailles, but a Frenchman knows no home 
bul France, and at first brought everything from 
France. Among the greatest distresses of the colon- 
ists was the infrequency of ships from home. This. 
caused the absence of not only of Parisian fashions. 
bul at first of French fare as well. So far as food 
was concerned this lack was Limited mainly to flour, 
lard, wine and salted meat, for fresh meat and fruit, 



of course was not brought across the water. There 
were French cooks in Mobile, however, and they 
gradually learned to dress the native products into 
appetizing dishes. 

Only a little later than the founding of Mobile, 
the Spanish officers at St. Marks gave the Jesuit 
Clarlevoix a state dinner which made him think he 
was in Europe, and Penicaut even earlier tells of 
things which make one's mouth water. 

The French breakfast has always been light, and 
the main meal has been dinner. While we cannot be 
certain of the order in which the menu was served, 
we know the name of a good many Mobile dishes. 
We may conjecture that soup, — the great national 
dish, — came first. It was so essential that it became 
the proverbial expression for a meal. Bienville, for 
instance, speaks of the priest, Le Maire, taking soup 
with him. Gumbo file goes back to colonial times, 
and indeed earlier, for it was ground up sassafras 
leaves as originally prepared by the Indians, while 
the oysters that go with it were so abundant as to 
give this name to what we call Cedar Point. Few 
kinds of fish are mentioned by the French, but they 
had the same sheephead, mackerel, trout and the 
like which are favorites with us. A stream over the 
bay was named Fish River. Meat was even more 
abundant. Bear and deer were familiar dishes, and 
much later a quarter of venison cost very little. 
Deer River, below Mobile, and Bear Ground, near 
the Old Fort, testify to the abundance of such game. 
Chickens, eggs and turkeys abound, — the latter be- 
ing called Indian fowl, Coq d'Inde, and giving the 
name to our Coden. In fact, game of every kind 
was common. A great dish borrowed from the In- 

29 



dians was the sagamite, ;i kind of mush made from 
corn meal, and bread made of acorns or other nuts 
was not unknown. Vegetables became common, 
especially corn and beans, prepared separately or 

served together as the Indian succotash. Hominy 
is mentioned oftener on the Virginia border than in 
Louisiana, but corn bread of different kinds was 
used. Something fried (friture) was often a part of 
the meal, and pastry (patisserie) was seldom absent 
in well-to-do households. 

Fruits were abundant. The peach, cherry and 
plum were native, and enjoyed by the Indians as 
well as the French. Oranges were introduced from 
the, AVest Indies and the fig from Provence, but 
bananas are not named. Grapes were not much es- 
teemed, as there was little besides the muscadine, 
which we know. The scuppernong does not seem 
to have been then introduced from the Atlantic 
coast. Strawberries, however, were much praised, 
and also watermelons, while mulberries were univer- 
sal. These are summer fruits, but in the fall the 
nuts of this climate were gathered. Walnuts, chest- 
nuts and chinquapins were frequent enough and 
much enjoyed. Pecans (pacanes) are mentioned as 
a common species of walnut (noyer). 

Little native wine was made, although there is rea- 
son to think that some whiskey was; one of the 
greatest drawbacks connected with the infrequency 
of communication was the scarcity of wine. IYni- 
caul did not much esteem the native cherries, but 
casually remarks that they go well with eau-de-vie. 
This corresponds to the bran. lied fruit of American 
times. 

We generally wind up a dinner, as well as begin 
30 



a breakfast, with coffee. This drink was coming 
into use in France. D'Argenson mentions it as a 
common custom, — and somewhat later it is known 
in Louisiana, — but we cannot be certain that it was 
used at the time that Mobile was founded. 

Of course, the rich lived better than the poor, but 
there were not many poor. All cultivated the soil 
and raised something. The freshness and quality 
of the vegetables, and the fact that so many people 
were hunters and fishers, made conditions more 
equal than in later days. Creole cooking became 
one of the colonial institutions. Creole dishes, often 
highly seasoned, become common. After the removal 
of Mobile it was to make little difference whether 
vessels came or not. But at its founding this was 
not so : for Mobile was a part of France and had no 
other aspiration than to be a far-away suburb of 
Paris. 

VIII.— THE MOSQUITO FLEET. 

It was only once or twice a season that the big 
ships came from France, but Mobile Bay saw other 
sails during the year. The coasts of France, wheth- 
er on the Mediterranean, Atlantic or the Norman, 
developed a hardy sea-faring population, and not a 
few of these, as well as many Canadians, made up 
the early settlers. Dauphine Island, — Massacree as 
it was first called, — was well settled from the be- 
ginning, and gradually the shores of the bay re- 
ceived many settlers. These habitans and Creoles 
loved the water and there is hardly a cliff on the 
bay or a fishing stream reaching back into the in- 
terior that does not show evidence, in name or other- 
wise, of their occupation. People now-a-daays seek- 
ing locations in Mobile and Baldwin counties are 

31 



confronted by French names which many of them 
do not understand. 

At first glance it would serm that the principal 
commerce would be the lonely trip of the traversier 
from the Island to the city.— carrying supplies from 
the incoming ships and exports for them to take 
hark to France, besides some local traffic and ex- 
change of goods. Tins was frequent enough, and 
even in 17n2 a boat of sixty tons had to be built for 
this purpose, and still the commerce grew as port 
and town improved. But this was not all. During 
the war against England the Spanish ports were 
open and there was a Large trade of every kind with 
Pensacola, besides traffic, only less in size, with Ha- 
vana and Vera Cruz. In addition to this, moreover, 
there was always the export of goods from Mobile 
to the French islands, particularly to Leogane and 
other parts of San Domingo. Indeed, we miss much 
of the spirit of the time if we think of Mobile alone; 
for even Louisiana was only a part of a large French 
colonial empire, which in some respects had its 
earliest centre in San Domingo. 

Nor is this coasting trade all that would build up 
shipping. The habitans were not only Frenchmen, 
but Catholics, and Catholicism incidentally meant ;i 
large fishing trade for- Fridays and fast days. The 
people early began to raise cattle, but their prox- 
imity to the coast ^ver made fish 0m 1 of the favorite 
articles of food. The fishermen lived principally 
near the mouth of the EJay, as indeed they have ever 
since, and, while the Hay of Hon Secours may have 
been a reminder of the Montreal church, it was also 
truly ;i haven of refuge for small craft. Perhaps 
the village above Daphne was later, hut there grad- 



ually came to be groups of dwellings on favored 
spots about the smiling bay. 

Each civilization has to borrow much from that 
which went before, and we find reminders of Europe 
even in far away Louisiana. The French got much 
of their nautical speech from the Italians and Span- 
iards, — as these had earlier from the Romans and 
Moors, — and some of the boats which plied our bay 
are described in terms which would just as well fit 
the Mediterranean. 

There are a number of small types of vessels men- 
tioned, whose size is somewhat uncertain. We have 
seen that a traversier running between Mobile and 
Dauphine Island ; but a traversier of forty tons also 
sometimes went to Havana, and two even came with 
Iberville across the ocean in 1698. The chaloupe, — 
a variation of the Dutch sloop, — was also seaworthy, 
for one hailed from St. Augustine. Other hinds of 
boats are biscaienne, balandre, and pinque. all sail- 
ing craft with some difference in size and character. 
"We know one balandre came from Vera Cruz, and a 
pinque could carry six hundred sacks of flour. 
Eelouque is sometimes used interchangeably with 
frigate, as in the case of L'Aigle. By rights the 
felouque is the long, two-masted fast sailer with two 
Lateen sails still so common on the Mediterranean. 
Brulot and flute, — La Dauphine is a flute, — seem to 
have been generic words, while the pirogue was 
rather a flat bottom boat than the dug-out, which, 
among the Americans, came to bear that title. 
Canoes are often mentioned, and generally as made 
of bark; butwhat kind of bark was available in our 
latitude? Oak and pine were the principal trees, 
and their bark was certainly not used. Birch and 

33 



willow generally served in the north, but were un- 
common about Mobile. Doubtless sump of these 
barks were secured from the upper rivers, but this 
whs the reason thai the dug-out was common even 

m Indian days. In point of fad it was hollowed by 
fire rather than by chiselling. 

Iberville planned a great ship-yard on Dauphine 
Island, — he said there was no reason why boats of 
any size desired could not be buill there. His death 
and the Spanish Succession War made great 
changes, — bu1 maybe our day is to effect what he 
dreamed. 

The boats were very useful where everyone lived 
on the water, and there were no roads beyond trad- 
ing paths. Proportionally navigation was more im- 
portant than now. for all trade and commerce were 
carried on by water. And apart from communica- 
tion among the French on Mobile waters, tin 1 Indian 
trade up the rivers and commerce to France, we, 
read much of trips to Pensacola and Vera Cruz. 
Starvation, — disette, — was a frequent visitor, es- 
pecially at the old fort, and but for the coasting 
trade to the Spanish colonies, our French settlement 
mighl now share the fate of Raleigh's colony at 
Roanoke. 

All honor, then, not only to Iberville and the 
armed Etenommee but also to Chateaugue and Be- 
cancourt with their peaceful felouqaes and brigan- 
t ines. 



34 



II. 

MOBILE. 



IX.— THE REMOVAL AS TOLD BY THE 
REMOVERS. 

Mobile had been established with two outlooks', — 
the one towards the Indian tribes high up the river 
system, the other towards France and trade in the 
Gulf of Mexico. The latter was necessarily con- 
ducted from Port Dauphin at the east end of Dau- 
phine Island, for there was the deep harbor. The 
other called for a river site, as the pirogues and 
other boats of the day could not venture on the 
rough bay. It might be a question whether Iberville 
had not selected a point too high up for his main 
settlement. There was no question of its conven- 
ience so far as the Indians were concerned, particu- 
larly the few but influential Mobilians, but just as 
the French had to experiment for several years to 
find what grain was suited to the country, so they 
were to learn by experience as to the best site for 
their capital. 

High water had already .threatened Fort Louis, 
but in March, 1711, came the floods which settled 
the question for all time. This, together with the 
surrounding circumstances, is told so fully in two 
dispatches dater shortly afterwards, on June 20, 
1711, that we will give them as in the nature of what 
Prof. A. B. Hart would call history told by contem- 
poraries. One was from Bienville himself at Mas- 

35 



sacre Island to Pontchartrain, the minister of the 
marine, and is as follows, after discussing his Span- 
ish neighbors : 

"We have arrived at that period when we could 
not bear our own misery. It is so great that I dare 
not describe it to your highness. We are not able to 
sustain ourselves any longer against the flood of 
presents which the British make to the Indians and 
which they offer them for abandoning our side, and 
if Ave have sustained ourselves up to the present, [ 
protest that it is not without much management and 
care. It is two years since we have given the In- 
dians anything, and during that time we have kept 
them hoping from month to month. I have no am- 
munition, — I dare not tell you further of our condi- 
tion ; I am seeking some from Martinique, but t hex- 
will do as they have done, that is to say. pay no at- 
tention to our representation. As the opportunity 
of this boat is not sure on account of the latitude 
where it must go. we are trying to see if we can find 
a suitable boat here to send direct to Prance to ren- 
der ;:eeonnt of all I cannot put on paper. 

"The waters have risen so greatly this spring that. 
the habitans of this town (bourg) have asked me to 
change the location and put it at the entrance of the 
river, eight leagues lower, where there is a splendid 
place (be! endroil I, and this 1 have accorded them. 
They are all building there al present (il y batisse 
tons ;i presant ». This fort is all rotten, so that it 
will not cost more to build another one at the month 
of the river, where we will he in position to aid Mas- 
sacre tsland. I will cause a village of Indians to de- 
scend to the site whieh we are abandoning. 1 will 
also make the more laborious and expert of these 

3fi 



natives come down to the new establishment. I have 
already commenced to have work dune and to have 
made cedar piling (pieux de sedre) for the enclosure 
(encinte) of this new fort. If I had any goods suit- 
able for pay to the Indians I could have the new fort 
built cheap, but having none, I will do nothing that I 
do not know how to pay for." 

The other dispatch possibly carried more weight ; 
for it was written by D'Artaguiette, who had been 
sent over to investigate colonial conditions. He also 
addresses Monseigneur Pontchartrain, and writes as 
follows : 

"The waters rose so considerably this spring and 
with so much impetuosity that the greater part of 
the houses of this town (bourg) have been covered 
(noyez) up to the comb (fet) of the roof in five or 
six days. This lasted more than a month ; the in- 
habitants have all asked to change down the river, 
which one could not refuse them ; the fort is all rot- 
ten. M. de Bienville, who sees like myself, the im- 
possibility of aiding the port (Dauphine Island) 
from so far, and that four years ago the same acci- 
dent happened, joined to the assurance which all 
the Indians give us that the waters rise even higher, 
all these reasons have made us take tho resolution of 
changing; the commandant has had people working 
with much diligence in making cedar piling (pieux 
de cedre), which lasts much longer than other wood, 
for the enclosure (enceinte) of the fort and its bas- 
tions. This wood is found in places difficult of ac- 
cess, but its hardness makes the trouble worth while. 
The Apalache Indians, who have been working on 
this piling, are looking after their crops, and it is 
not possible for them to work further until after 

87 



their harvest. Meantime they ask to be paid, and 
there is nothing to pay them with. We are so de- 
prived of everything that dying of misery would not 
he worse. We have asked aid of San Domingo, 
Martinique and everywhere, without anyone's deign- 
ing to give attention to our complaints. They have 
written us from Vera Cruz that an armanent is be- 
ing made up at Jamaica (British) to come here and 
capture us. and that the Renommee (French) des- 
tined for here has been captured. Finally. I cannot 
tell you our present condition, it is beyond expres- 
sion ; one cannot change the fort and the garrison 
until the arrival of the help which you will send 
this colony. It will be necessary to send an engineer 
to construct this fort and to build one little battery 
or several batteries at the Port of Massacre, with a 
detachment of marines to guard it. This place since 
its fire has been rebuilt by the energy of the inhabi- 
tants, who like to live there much better than they 
did before, so that they do not deserve to lie exposed 
to Hie insult of foreign vessels." 

We have also an account by Penicaut. who was 
One of the habitans. We thus have the removal from 
the public and the private point of view, together 
with an account of the new neighborhood. 

"At the beginning of this year.*' says he. "the 
fort of Mobile and the establishment of the habitans 
in the neighborhood of the fort were inundated by 
an overflow of the river to such an extent that only 
the high eleyatins were qoI damaged. 

'■MM, D 'Artaguiette and Bienville, seeing that, 
according to the report of the Indians, we should be 
often exposed to these inundations, resolved to 

Grange the fori of Mobile. They chose a place where 

38 



we had put the Chactas upon a bend of Mobile bay, 
to the right. We gave them whom we displaced 
another site for their homes two leagues further 
down, to our right in descending to the sea, on the 
bank of Dog River. 

"M. Paillou, aide-major, went with our officers to 
the place where we had planned to build the new 
fort. He laid out the outside lines, then the es- 
planade, which ought to be left vacant around the 
fort, and marked also further out the location for 
each family, giving each one a lot twelve toises wide 
by twenty-five long. He marked out at the same 
time place for the barracks for the soldiers ; the resi- 
dence of the priests was to the left of the fort, facing 
the sea. We worked the whole year on this estab- 
lishment. 

"This year a party of fifteen Chactas, while on a 
bear hunt, was met in the woods by a party of Ali- 
bamons, their enemies. The chief of the Chactas, 
named Dos Grille, a brave man, was not dismayed 
by the number of the Alibamons, and, although hit 
by a gunshot from afar, and the ball had pierced 
his cheek, he took out the bullet, which had staid in 
his mouth, put it in his gun, and killed the man who 
had wounded him. He immediately reassembled his 
fifteen men on an elevated spot, and from there, 
each one being posted behind a tree, they killed 
more than thirty Alibamons. The Alibamons did 
not dare resist any longer, and took to flight, aban- 
doning their dead and wounded. 

"The Chactas had only three men killed and three 
or four slightly wounded. They brought to our fort 
to MM. D'Artaguiette and Bienville the thirty scalps 
and the skins of tw r o deers which they had killed 

39 



while coming. We made them presents of merchan- 
dise and gave them considerable powder and ball in 
recognition of their bravery. The chief of these 
Chactas had killed eight himself, though wounded, 
as I have said, by a ball in his mouth. 

"Several habitans of Mobile this year went and 
established themselves on the seashore at the place 
called Miragouin, about five leagues from Mobile 
going towards Dauphine Island, one league beyond 
Fowl River. 

"The rest of the year was spent in completing the 
new fort which we built on the seashore ; we erected 
two batteries outside, each of twelve guns, which 
commanded the sea. 

"The new fort of Mobile on the seashore being 
completed and the houses finished, we transported 
all household goods and merchandise in canoes, and 
made rafts upon which we put cannon and in gen- 
eral all munitions and effects which had been at the 
old fort. The habitans carried their effects at the 
same time to the respective habitations which had 
been given them near the new fort and we entirely 
abandoned the old. 

"Some days after we had been established at the 
new place on the seashore there arrived a vessel 
which anchored in the roads of Dauphine Island ; it 
was the frigate named the Renommee, commanded 
by M. de Remonville, who was captain. 

"The sieur de Valigny, an officer who since a boy 
had been fort major, came in this vessel with twenty- 
five Frenchmen, whom he had brought over to rein- 
force the garrison. 

"We disembarked the munitions of war and sup- 
plies and put them in the magazines of the fori Oil 

40 



Dauphine Island with troops to guard them." 

Their old acquaintance, disette, — famine, — follow- 
ed the French and they had to seek adventures 
among the Indians as they had at the old fort. In 
this way they learned to know the new neighbor- 
hood. 

"M. Blondel, lieutenant of infantry, went with 30 
soldiers to live among the Chactas. Sieur de la 
Valigny went with twenty-five soldiers across Mo- 
bile Bay to the neighborhood of Fish River. He 
took with him eight Apalache Indians who were ex- 
cellent hunters. These Apalaches, whose village 
had been destroyed by the Alibamons, had come, as I 
have told, and been established between the Mo- 
bilians and the Tomes in a place which M. Bienville 
had given them, with grain to plant their lands the 
first year; but the year that we quit the site of the 
first fort of Mobile they followed us and MM. 
D Artagniette and Bienville assigned them a district 
on the banks of the river St. Martin (Three Mile 
Creek) a league above us, counting from the bay. 
The Taouachas were also placed on the river so as to 
be a league above the Apalaches. They, too, had 
left the Spaniards because of war with the Ali- 
bamons ; they are not Christians like the Apalaches, 
who are the single Christian nation which came 
from Spanish territory. 

"The Apalaches have divine service like the Cath- 
olics in France. Their great feast is the Day of St. 
Louis ; they come in the evening before to invite the 
officers of the fort to the feast at their village, and 
on that day they give good cheer to all who come, 
and especially the French. 

"The priests of our fort go there to say high mass, 

41 



which the Indians hear with a great deal of devo- 
tiofl, chanting the Psalms in Latin as we do in 
France, and after dinner the vespers and the bene- 
diction of the Holy Sacrament. Both men and wo- 
men are on this day well dressed. The men have a 
kind of cloth overcoat (surtout) and the women 
wear cloaks (manteaux) with petticoats (jupes) of 
silk a la Francoise; but they have no headdress 
(coeffure), the head being bare; their hair, long and 
very black, is plaited and hangs down in one or two 
plaits, like the Spanish women. Those who have 
hair too long plait it down to the middle of the back 
and then tie it up with ribbon. 

"They have a church, where one of the French 
priests goes to say mass every Sunday and feast day ; 
and also a baptismal font to baptize their children, 
and cemetery (cimetiere) alongside the church, in 
which there is a cross; there they bury their dead. 

"On St. Louis Day, after service is finished, to- 
wards evening they mask, men, women and children ; 
they dance the rest of the day Math the French who 
happen to be there and other Indians who come that 
day to the village ; they have any quantity of cooked 
meat at refresh them. They love the French very 
much, and it must be confessed that there is nothing 
savage about them except their language, which is a 
mixture of Spanish and Alibamon." 

The centre of the Mobile settlement was the new 
fort. This was built of palisades very close to the 
edge of the water, and in fact it must have needed 
some filling to reclaim the front part of it from the 
marshy bank. It was apparently begun some day in 
May, on the site now marked by a cnmmeromative 
tablet. Like Rome, Mobile was not built in a day. 

42 



We know from the later dispatch from Bienville 
that even in October of this year there were still a 
few houses occupied at Old Fort Louis. But official 
life centred at New Fort Louis and the old site was 
forgotten in the life and activity of the new. 

The port on Dauphine Island remained unchanged 
except that it became more popular. Penicaut says 
this occurred at the same time New Fort' Louis was 
built. 

"During this time," says he, "M. Lavigne-Voisin, 
a captain from Saint Malo, made land at Dauphine 
Island, where he anchored, and thereupon went to 
Mobile to see MM. D. Artaguiette and Bienville, and, 
after having stayed there several days, he asked 
permission to build a fort on Dauphine Island, which 
pleased them very much. He did not fail to com- 
mence work as soon as he got back ; he made em- 
brasures in his fort for cannon, which protected the 
entrance of the port for all vessels which come to 
land there. 

"He at the same time had built a very handsome 
church in the district where the habitans of the 
island lived. The front of the church faced the 
port where the vessels were, so that those who were 
on board could come in a moment to hear mass,, 
which caused many habitans of the environs of Mo- 
bile to establish themselves upon Dauphine Island." 
And this, he adds, was even more marked after 
Remonville's arrival in the fall, and soon the port 
became a little town itself. 



43 



X.— NEW MOBILE. 

Bienville selected for the new site of his colony a 
plateau near the mouth of the river. A slight slope 
back from the river reached a wide level space ten 
feet above ordinary water on which a large city 
could be built. The river bank was marshy, but it 
was only about a hundred yards wide. To the south 
was Choctaw Point swamp, to the north the low 
ground of the mouth of the bayou he called Mar- 
motte (and Americans One Mile Creek), but it 
would be a long time before the town could extend 
so far. The long, low bluff overlooking the river 
afforded a good place for a front street, and a cape 
or projection where the river made a bend to the 
west presented an admirable place for a fort to com- 
mand the approach from the sea in the one direction 
and from the Indian country in the other. On the 
location he selected grew up the city of Mobile, to 
flourish and grow under five flags. 

The boundaries of Bienville's Mobile were approx- 
imately St. Michael street on the north. Conception 
street on the west, and Canal street on the south. 
The eastern street was Royal, running along the 
high land. The slope to the east was often muddy 
and overflowed and no houses were built on the east 
side of Royal, except that the fort extended almost 
to the river. West of the fort, too, there were two 
blocks running out to Joachim street, and bounded 
on three sides by the woods. The principal street 
w;is Royal. 

The plal Igives a detailed description of the fort 
itself as follows : 

44 






"Fort Louis is fortified with an exterior length 
from one point of bastion to another of 540 feet. 

"The fort is constructed of cedar pilings 13 feet 
high, of which 2 1-2 are in the ground, and 14 inches 
square planted close together. These stakes end on 
top in points like palisades. On the inside along the 
piling runs a kind of banquette in good slope, two 
feet high and one and a half wide. 

"There is in the fort only the governor's house, 
the magasin where are the king's effects, and a 
guard-house. The officers, soldiers, and habitans 
have their abode outside the fort, being placed in 
such manner that the streets are six toises wide and 
parallel. The blocks are 300 feet square, except 
those opposite the fort. 

"The houses are constructed of cedar and pine 
upon a foundation of wooden stakes which project 
out of the ground a foot, because this soil is inun- 
dated in certain localities in time of rain. Some 
people use to support their houses a kind of turf 
(tufle), very soft, and would be admirable for fine 
buildings. This stone is found 18 leagues above the 
new settlement along the bank of the Mobile River. 
The houses are 18, 20 to 25 feet high or more, some 
lower, constructed of a kind of plaster (mortie) 
made of earth and lime. This lime is made of oyster 
shell found at the mouth of the river on little islands 
which are called Shell Islands. 

"They give every one who wishes to settle in this 
place a lot 75 feet front on a street by 150 feet deep. 

"The stone to support the houses is scarce and not 
much used for lack of means of water transporta- 
tion, such as flatboats, for there are none, and peo- 
ple do not care to go to the expense of building 

45 



them. This stone would be a great aid, for those 
whose houses rest only on wooden piles are obliged 
to renew them every three or four years, because 
they decay in the ground." 

We have "the names of officers and principal 
habitans who occupy the lots (emplacements) of this 
new colony (establisement)." Proceeding north- 
northward on present Royal street from the fort the 
block up to the present Conti we find occupied by 
only two places. There is some confusion as to the 
southern one, but there can be little doubt that this 
was the site of the parish church (Leglize et 
paroisse), for the other place, that on the corner of 
Conti, was occupied by the priests of the Seminary 
of Quebec, — who had a large lot called the Seminaire 
at Old Mobile. From Conti to Dauphin w T ere only 
two people of note, on the southern corner being M. 
de Chateaugue, the great sailor brother of Bienville, 
and next north of him, Sieur Poirrier, the commis- 
sary (garde magasin). The magasin itself was, as 
shown in the description, within the fort, on its 
Western side. The lots facing on Royal were gener- 
ally four to a block, and the other two of this square, 
now Van Antwerp's, as well as almost all of the two 
blocks to the north, were occupied by habitans and 
voyageurs. Between Dauphin and St. Francis, how- 
ever, were even in those days lots occupied by peo- 
ple in the employ of the government, — somewhat as 
now. for this was the site of the Custom House; and 
next north of the present Glennon building Avas M. 
de St. Helesne. 

The land behind these Royal street lots were occu- 
pied mainly by soldiers, but also in two instances by 
'"several women." Across the present St. Emanuel 

4fi 



street from them were mainly soldiers, employees 
and habitans, except that at the northwest corner of 
St. Emanuel and Government streets was M. Des 
Laurier, who occupied the important position of 
surgeon (chirurgien major), and at the southwest 
corner of St. Emanuel and St. Francis, and thus in 
the present Bienville Square, was the well known 
soldier, M. Blondel. Most of the lots on Conception 
street are unmarked, except that the present square 
was occupied by soldiers, habitans and employees, 
and that Gayfer's and the Goodman stores next east 
were taken up by the grounds of the hospital. 

No one lived further west, except that there are 
two blocks set off for soldiers on the west side of 
Conception from Government to Monroe streets. 
East of these and immediately west of the fort were 
two blocks which were occupied. The cemetery 
lay at the southeast corner of Conception and Gov- 
ernment streets, taking up the site of the Fidelia 
Club and adjacent property. On the St. Emanuel 
street front of these two blocks, and facing the trees' 
of the fort esplanade, were some well known people. 
Thus about the Acker place was M. de Boisbrillant, 
a distinguished officer whose romantic affair with a 
gray nun Bienville interrupted. Next south of him 
was M. de Grandville, and next on the corner of 
Church street, on the site of Christ Church, was M. 
Valligny, a prominent soldier. On the southwest 
corner of St. Emanuel and Church streets was M. de 
St. Denis, one of the most distinguished explorers of 
old Louisiana. His name and Bienville's are the 
only names also found on the map of Old Mobile. 
He did not live at Mobile very long, for he soon 
made his headquarters at what is now Ocean Springs, 

47 



but he came back to Mobile every now and then. 
Next south of him was Jean Louis, master cannoneer 
(maitre cainonier), and then after some unnamed 
habitant we find on a corner near modern Theatre 
street M. Du ( !los, the ordonnateur v corresponding 
almost to the position of civil governor. 

South of the fort four blocks are laid out from our 
Monroe to Canal, but they contain very few people. 
Most of them are filled by soldiers, habitans, em- 
ployees and '-plusieurs femmes" again, but there 
are two or three notable exceptions. The front 
square immediately south of the fort, somewhat as 
at Old Mobile, belonged to Bienville, for he had a 
whole block to himself. At the southwest corner of 
Madison and Eoyal was the residence (logement) of 
the priests, probably Jesuits. These were entirely 
independent of the Seminary of Quebec, and not al- 
ways friendly with it. Immediately west of the 
priests, and thus on the south side of Madison mid- 
way between Royal and St. Emanuel, was M. Mande- 
ville, the first of a name always distinguished in 
Louisiana. The Mandeville Tract at Mobile was 
called for him, and after the founding of New Or- 
leans the family were prominent there, even down 
into American times. On the corner opposite the 
priests was the engineer, M. de Paillou, who laid off 
Mobile, Fort Toulouse, and later Fort Rosalie at 
Natchez. 

There was but one wharf in French times, the 
King's Wharf. Bienville originally built it north of 
the fort, and its cedar logs still remain, buried under 
the soil. Afterwards it was rebuilt in a more sub- 
stantial manner in front of the fort. Over this 
passed all imports and exports. The exports were 

4S 



mainly hides, in winter furs and beaver skins, be- 
sides naval stores and some timber. The imports 
were everything needed for the colony and for the 
presents annually made to the Indian tribes to keep 
them in good humor. Canary wine was sometimes 
brought in Spanish boats, for Spanish wine as yet 
was even more famous than French. The different 
French soldiers, by dispensation from a royal decree 
to the contrary, had space reserved on incoming 
ships to bring over furniture, wine, or anything else 
which they needed. Supplies did not all go to the 
royal magasin, for we know that there were many 
marchands, or shopkeepers, at Mobile, and when the 
magasin ran low the governor did not hesitate to 
press their goods for public purposes. 

The plans of Old Mobile at Twenty-seven Mile 
Bluff gave names of streets and people, while that 
of New Mobile in 1711 omits both. The word 
habitant was domesticated at Mobile just as it was 
at Montreal, but no names of habitans are given on 
our map. Some habitans are known to have moved 
to Mobile, but their residences are unknown, for this 
map gives only the officials. There were many 
habitans, voyageurs, employees, whose names we do 
not know, as is true of the soldiers also; but if we 
miss the godly family named Dieu on the plan of the 
old city, at least we also miss in the new Mathieu 
Sagean, who, if he had been named Cook, would 
have been a chef. La Pointe lived at Scranton, and 
Alexandre on Dauphine Island, but were probably 
at first in Mobile. 

A remarkable feature of the new settlement is 
that none of the streets, with the possible exception 
of St. Francis, bears the name which we saw in the 

49 



town at Twenty-seven Mile Bluff. There is no rea- 
son to suppose that there has been any change since 
1711 in the name of streets north of Government. 
Those extending from the present Government to 
Theatre street, and all east and west streets further 
south were to be laid out anew by the Americans. 
One or two hit the old lines, but unless we were to 
guess that Theatre street bore the name of Bien- 
ville ami Government street the name of Iberville as 
up the river. Ave have no clue to the nomenclature. 

The esplanade up the river Avas called Place 
Royale, and probably this was true at New Mobile. 
To this it may be due that the front street of French 
times has ever since been called Royal. The next 
si reel west Avas St. Charles, now St. Emanuel, but 
what the third street, renamed Conception by the 
Spaniards was under the French Ave do not knoAV. 
At all events, the habit of calling streets from the 
people who live on them, a custom of small towns, 
Avas left behind, and the streets of the new settle- 
ment were at an early date named for prominent 
people or institutions. Conti was called for the 
ureal family of that name, and Dauphin commemo- 
rates the remarkable change which death Avrought 
now in the royal family. Dauphine Island relates 
to the same occurrence. 

The new settlement Avas at first smaller than the 
"Id. but it enjoyed a better site and unlike the old 
avjis td prove permanent. 

XL— THE GREAT HAT QUESTION. 

While Bienville Avas acting on his own responsi- 
bility in Louisiana in moving the capital from Twen- 
ty-seven Mile Bluff to the present site of Mobile, im- 



portant events were occurring in France. Bienville 
did not know it, but'in the very April, 1711, in which 
he was arranging for his change of base, the Dau- 
phin died and the whole court of Louis XIV also 
made a 'change of base. Louis' grandson, the Duke 
of Burgundy, a pupil of Fenelon, became Dauphin, 
and his wife, the charming Duchess, became the 
Dauphine, for whom our Dauphine Island was to be 
named. The Duke of St. Simon was now in his glory 
and was prosecuting The Great Hat Question. 

This was whether the president of the great 
French court called the Parlement should or should 
not take off 'his hat when the Dukes of France at- 
tended as members. 

There was also a Great Hat Question in Louisiana. 
for ships arrived very seldom. The dadies made up 
lor hats by the use of feathers, ribbons, and it must 
be confessed by rats also ; for the coifures of that 
day were among the most marvelous inventions of 
history. Of course, those of Versailles were not 
quite reproduced in Louisiana, but Mobile was a 
piece of France, an extraterritorial city, so to speak, 
and as such followed, as nearly as possible, the 
French fashions. The dependence of the official 
class, — and they made up a large part of the Mobile 
population, — upon Versailles was something which 
has not been often paralleled, and if Marlborough 
could dispute the military supremacy of France, at 
least no one, as a recent writer expressed it, has 
from the time of Louis XIV disputed the milinery 
supremacy of Paris. We do not know that the Mo- 
biliennes imitated the extravagance of their French 
sisters, but the pictures which Paul LaCroix gives 
of headdresses imitating ships might well have been 

51 



designed in Mobile; for longing for a ship from 
Fiance was the only thing in which all agreed. 

Of armor we know something, but that was rare, 
and of Indian dress more; but we are not told a 
great deal about the colonial costume of the day, 
for we are met with the lack of" private letters and 
journals which even later has troubled Southern his- 
torians, French 'or English. The Yankees are much 
more given to writing on private affairs than the 
habitans of Louisiana or Canada. Bienville and the 
other officials hardly ever discussed such matters. 
The skirts — jupes — of the ladies receive an occa- 
sional mention, however, and we may well imagine 
that some of these assumed the great balloon shape 
which was so common in France. The Andrienne'is 
spoken of as a kind of flowing drapery, — possibly 
we have in it some reminder of the pleat which the 
painter Watteau was making fashionable by his 
pictures. Robe was the generic for women's cos- 
tumes then, as it is now, but details are wanting. 
Penticaut is our chief authority, and he was at this 
time a bachelor and could know little of the subject, 
even at what he could' learn from the clothes lines of 
the "plnsieurs femmes" in the suburbs. 

When we come to the men we knoAV more, but our 
knowledge is mainly negative ; 'for there is constant 
complaint that they did not have enough clothes. 
Bienville every now and then acknowledges the ar- 
rival of coals and shirts for the 'men, but says that 
sucks have not come, and as for hat. it is seldom 
mentioned. The Indians, we are told, wore a 
"braguet," but we have little information as to the 
habitans. Perhaps in the nature of the case they 
sometimes anticipated the French Revolution and 



were Sansculottes. They occasionally had very se- 
vere weather at Mobile in winter, but this was easily 
met by the skins and furs which came for export to 
France. There was not much trouble about shoes, 
for tanneries were set up in the colony, and in this 
respect the people were independent of France. 

No doubt much of the clothing was made up in 
Mobile, but there were no manufactories. The Eng- 
glish government was industrious in preventing the 
erection of manufactories in their colonies, but the 
French had no such trouble. The absolute govern- 
ment of Louis XIV made everyone dependent on the 
court at home and every colony dependent upon 
France, and indeed many of the articles were made 
up there. As to material, cotton was becoming more 
common, its habitat being still in Mexico and other 
southern countries, but wool had not yet been de- 
posed from its' pre-eminence. It came mainly from 
England, and made Flanders the manufacturing 
centre of the world. Taffeta is mentioned, but the 
principal goods brought to America were Limbourg, 
Mazamet. Rouen, and they were largely used in the 
Indian trade. Every ship brought a consignment of 
these materials. 

It would have been well if the French government 
had encouraged the manufacture of cloth and other 
articles in Louisiana, but the factories of France 
were languishing and desired every market possible. 
St. Simon tells us that the Revocation of the Edict 
of Nantes twenty-six years before had now become 
severely felt. The expulsion of the Huguenots had 
affected every industry, particularly in South 
France, and not only so, but the exiles carried their 
knowledge and skill to Holland, Germany and Eng- 

53 



land to build up rivals iu trade. This and the war' 
were the two reasons the supplies from France were 
infrequent and unsatisfactory. 

A native linen made from the fibre of the mul- 
berry bark is sometimes mentioned, but silk played 
little part at Mobile, except in the dress of a few 
ladies. It must be remembered that not only was 
Bienville not married, but the other officers were 
there for short times and did not always bring their 
families with them. This was not true from 1712, 
however, for the new governor was to bring his 
large family, — several of them young ladies, — and 
from that time there was a kind of court at Mobile ; 
for Cadilac was to prove very punctilious. 

The Great Hat Question of France related to 
whether nobles or the lawyers should take off their 
hats. In Mobile, the Great Hat Question in 1711 
was how to get any hats at all. 

XII.— A CHATEAU ON THE BAY. 

Iberville had been disappointed in getting the 
lands about Mobile Bay ceded to him as a fief, but 
the practical Bienville built a chateau on what we 
call Garrow's Bend for a summer residence. Per- 
haps a nobleman of France would have laughed at a 
chateau built of lumber sawed on the spot and with 
open gallery looking out over the blue waters ; but 
it was more comfortable than a stone castle would 
have been. The furniture was ample, consisting of 
armoire, tables, chairs and bed. all brought from 
France and in the style which Louis XIV had made 
the vogue. There Bienville spent his summers when 
not called off on duty. From his gallery lie could 
follow th>' movements of the shipping, greai and 

54 



small, and from the end of his spider-legged pier, 
jutting out to deep water, he could bathe and fish 
at will. Hunting and fresh water fishing were also 
near at hand, for a tramp of a mile or two through 
the woods would bring him to Dog River, famous 
then and since. 

All around grew the stately magnolia and the pe- 
can, the evergreen live oak and the black and other 
oaks of this climate. The persimmon — which the 
French called plaquemine from the Choctaw word — 
the walnut, the cherry, the long-leaved tulip, and 
the locust or acacia were not far away, and the 
funereal cypress could be seen in a swamp near by. 

Bienville was not a botanist, although the system 
of Tournefort was popularized in Europe, soon to be 
succeeded by Linnaeus. But he took interest in his 
garden, where were flowers as well as vegetables. 
Lilies were native and the fences were overhung 
with Cherokee roses, but the cultivated roses of our 
day were not yet introduced from France. Jessa- 
mine, begonia, smilax and aster were native to the 
soil and needed no cultivation. It was in his vege- 
tables, however, that the practical Bienville, looking 
out for his colonists, took most interest. The potato, 
not yet called Irish because it was really American, 
of course took the leading place, but turnips and 
the other bulbous plants were not generally culti- 
vated outside of industrious Holland. Peas, beans 
and especially Indian corn came down from the In- 
dians themselves, and formed the staple dishes of 
the table. Bienville hardly had space upon his 
town lot to have a garden, and he therefore devoted 
more attention to this suburban place. He realized 
from the beginning that agriculture must be the 



basis of the colony, although it was hard to get the 
habitans away from the more lucrative Indian and 
Spanish trade. 

Whether Bienville went further and experimented 
with cotton and indigo, which were soon to be so 
prominent, we do not know. At this early date 
they form no item in the exports. He was much 
interested in tobacco, and if he did not experiment 
at Mobile, he certainly did at Natchez and other 
parts of the colony. This was ultimately to be one 
of the great Louisiana products. Grapes were miss- 
ing except the muscadine, and wine came from Spain 
or France. 

The pleasant Charlevoix seems never to have come 
to Mobile, but Bienville met him some ten years 
later, and in after years was to know something of 
the book which the father wrote upon his travels in 
North America. Half of the fourth volume was to 
be taken up with the description of the flora. It is 
very likely that Bienville in his tramps abroad 
would pay no attention to the wild plants, but the 
learned Jesuit was. like many of his day. interested 
in the materia mediea" which the New World opened 
to the Old. The candle myrtle was rather useful for 
commerce than medicine, but the plant which the 
French called ipecacuanha, and the English the May 
apple, was to prove a valuable discovery. The sun- 
flower was to furnish aconite, and even the lowly sar- 
acenia was a specific in its way. Gensing was useful 
from Canada to the Gulf, and sassafras not only sup- 
plied a tea, bu1 its ground leaves were to originate 
the famous Creole gumbo. The cassine or youpon 
furnished the black drink which the Indians took 
before going on the war-path, and its medicinal 



properties were also to be valued by the habitans. 

While Charlevoix was on the lookout for medi- 
cinal knowledge, he did not despise flowers which 
were merely grateful to the eye. He pictures for us 
fully the jack-in-the-pulpit, known to him as the 
Virgin's Slipper (sabot), and he tells also of the 
sweet shrub, together with many other pleasant 
things. 

The fauna of the country was familiar to Bien- 
ville, for he was a thorough woodsman ; but the ani- 
mals need not detain us. since, with the exception of 
the buffalo, they remain with us until now. The 
French even introduced some new ones. Horses 
were still rare, but cows, although the French strain 
had not been improved, were common enough. The 
business of herding was becoming almost as impor- 
tant under the French as among the Spaniards fur- 
ther south. Some of the early explorers found 
chickens on the lower Mississippi, but these came 
from some Spanish shipwreck. The poultry of Bien- 
ville's day was imported by himself and soon as- 
sumed great importance. 

Bienville's chateau was truly French and life 
there was pleasant in every way. His friends were 
entertained with music, cards, and to some extent 
with books ; but after all the unique feature con- 
sisted of the beautiful view over the bay and the 
"bel jardin" to which Penicaut so lovingly refers. 

XIII.— INFANT INDUSTRIES. 

It is only since Lord Durham's report in 1830 that 
any nation has begun to recognize colonies as exist- 
ing for themselves. All colonial empires have been 
founded on the idea that colonists were merely 

57 



hands for the home country, designed to extract 
from the New whatever would be useful to the Old 
World. This was the notion held by France in the 
time of Louis XIV, and the main question as to in- 
dustries was what would best supply France. 

Columbus' discovery was a mere accident, and 
when the matter of colonization w T as taken up Spain 
sought for gold and silver, and other nations fol- 
lowed only to seek also for precious metals. Mining 
is one of the extractive industries and is of somewhat 
the same nature as the fur trade, cattle raising and 
even the logging business. They are all pioneer in- 
dustries, and sometimes rather injure a country 
than built it up. Productive rather than extractive 
is agriculture, for in the first place it supplies the 
colonial market and may afford a surplus for ex- 
port which gradually builds up capital. Perhaps 
most remunerative of all industries are manufac- 
tures, because . the labor expended produces finer 
articles and secures greater returns. Necessary for 
any and all of these industries, however, is what is 
called trade in retail and commerce in its wholesale 
branches. "Which of all these occupations predomi- 
nated in early Louisiana? 

It was soon discovered that there was little in the 
way of mines on the Gulf of Mexico, although Le 
Sueur and afterwards Cadillac found minerals, par- 
ticularly copper, near the sources of the Mississippi. 
This, however, went more readily through Canada 
than Mobile. It was still thought a possibility in 
Crozat's time, and even later, for the sources of the 
Red River were supposed to be in the country from 
which the Spaniards drew some of the precious. 

58 



metals of Mexico ; but, although the king reserved 
one-fifth as his share, there was little realized. 

Of furs and peltry there is a different tale to tell. 
Much was anticipated from the hair of the buffalo, 
but this was found too coarse and was soon aban- 
doned. Beaver skins were found in abundance, but 
the best were from the Northwest, and Canadian in- 
fluence soon prevented their reaching the sea via 
Louisiana. Furs and skins of other wild animals, 
however, always formed a large part of the exports. 
Domestic animals were never grown in sufficient 
quantity for export. Iberville tried to introduce the 
Spanish sheep, but* the attempt was soon given up, 
and the Spanish colonists retained their monopoly 
of cattle raising. Hogs flourished, and these de- 
spised animals here as in the rest of the world form- 
ed the main staple for home consumption. Horses 
were valuable for agricultural purposes, and, al- 
though introduced by the Spaniards and the breed 
improved by Iberville, practically none existed in 
the colony when D'Artaguiette made his Domesday 
survey in 1708. 

In agriculture we must distinguish the gardens 
from the plantations. There were always vege^ 
tables, even on sandy Dauphine Island, but much 
time was lost experimenting with seeds from France, 
and it was some years before it was found that even 
wheat would not flourish in the Gulf country. The 
same resulted from the spasmodic attempts to intro- 
duce silk, and ultimately attention was concentrated 
on plantations for tobacco and indigo. These proved 
to be successful and led ultimately to a large export 
trade. It was doubtless agriculture that caused the 
introduction of slavery, first of Indians and after- 

59 



wards of aegroes. The negroes at first came from 
the French West Indies, but Crozat, and afterwards 
Law's Company, were obliged to bring them annual- 
ly from Guinea. During the Mobile period, how- 
ever, it cannot be said that agriculture had assumed 
the position which one would expect. Few farmers 
were brought out among the immigrants, and agri- 
culture in France was at this time at a low ebb, and 
famine frequently prevailed. The peasants were 
despised socially, although in the long run it was 
they who not only supported the court, but paid the 
big war budget of that time. 

Of manufacturing there was little, for, except for 
silk in the South of France, woollen goods in the 
Northeast, and fancy articles about Paris, manufac- 
tures had not survived the wreck of Colbert's plans 
by the wars of Louis XIV. Manufacture still meant 
hand-made, for machinery was in its infancy and the 
factory system unknown. If we can count sawmills 
under this head, there was something to show about 
Mobile. In 1718 Law's Company directed the new 
governor to investigate carefully the mill of M. 
Mean, situated on a stream about a league from Mo- 
bile. 1). 1 1 tradition has lost the site of this first flour- 
ishing sawmill. Bricks were also made in the vicin- 
ity and a great deal of lime came from the oyster 
shells, although naturally these products were main- 
ly for home consumption. Much was expected and 
something realized from naval stores. The first time 
Iberville went to Mobile he got a mast for the Pal- 
mier, and tar was made in quantity. Of finer man- 
ufactures there is little or nothing said. 

The trade of that day was both internal and ex- 
ternal. — with the Indians and with France and the 

till 



Spanish colonies. Both Crozat's and Law's exploita- 
tions were based largely upon commerce. Even dur- 
ing wartime, when there were few merchant vessels, 
the king relaxed his law against carrying merchan- 
dise so far as to make his ships bring whatever was 
offered as freight. In Mobile there were shopkeep- 
ers at least from 1707. and they are frequently 
mentioned afterwards. Their name, "marchand," 
is generic and is applied equally to such men as the 
twenty-five voyageurs engaged in the trade among 
the Illinois and to the resident shopmen. It would 
be interesting to see one of these little shops. It 
would doubtless be the front room of the colonial 
home, with wares displayed in the window, and the 
business conducted as often by the wife as by the 
husband. The wares would embrace everything 
from a plow to a wooden shoe, and we may be sure 
that even the ribbons, silks and millinery of France 
would not be lacking. The time had not yet come 
for shops having one line of goods. Each contained 
what now would be called general merchandise. 

Mechanics and artisans were well known. Iber- 
ville insisted upon them from the beginning. He 
sent over four families of artisans in the Pelican, 
and next year we have the name of a carpenter. 
The mediaeval guilds still influenced nomenclature, 
although they hardly existed otherwise in Mobile. 
The carpenter is master carpenter, and the same is 
true even of such military employments as armorer 
and cannoneer. 

On the whole, therefore, Mobile was quite a flour- 
ishing little town, and the centre of Indian and do- 
mestic trade for a large territory, but its chief in- 
dustries were trading and in raw materials. 

61 



XIV.— COLONIAL HOMES. 

John Piske never wrote more charming pages than 
those iu which he ascribes the different social char- 
acteristics of the North and South to the differing 
locations of the chimney in the houses. In New 
England, he says, the chimney is in the centre of 
the house, thus giving a fireplace in each room, no 
matter how small the number of rooms. This was 
necessary in order to warm the houses in that severe 
climate, and made the hearthstone the rallying point 
of the family. Down South, on the other hand, the 
type was the log cabin, consisting of two end 
rooms separated by an open passageway through 
the centre, each room having a separate chimney on 
the outside. There was less need of heat and the 
social centre was rather the open dining room in 
this hall. Fiske's idea is that the Northerner lived in- 
doors in winter and the Southerner in summer, re- 
versing customs with the climate. In any event, 
climate affects dwellings as well as clothing and cus- 
toms. 

Mr. Fiske, however, did not notice that an impor- 
tant addition in the lower South was the porch, cov- 
ering the front of this hallway. In Virginia it be- 
comes the stately portico that we find in General 
Lee's old home at Arlington, and in Charleston it is 
the long, wide piazza which always faces the sea. 
Up in New York there is only a little Dutch stoop, 
and in New England a cover over the door. 

When one reaches the Southwest, at Mobile and 
beyond, this piazza has assumed a different form 
and is known as the front gallery. It may be. as on 
the Atlantic, an extension of the central hall, or it 

fi2 



may open directly upon rooms which join each other 
without halls; but a house without a gallery is a 
rarity and is undesirable in this warmer climate. 
Here the Creole gallery has conquered the Eastern 
porch and practically driven out the word. All these 
words' are foreign and show a South European 
origin. 

Maurice Thompson dubs this gallery a Creole in- 
stitution ; and it surely is. It was brought here by 
the Canadians, however, and its primitive form is 
still found along the St. Lawrence. It is there a pro- 
jection from the house and does not rest upon pillars 
as with us. It is called galerie, the French form, as 
with the Southern Creoles. But from what part of 
France did the Canadians get it? If one travels 
through France, or if one looks at the illustrations 
under the word House in the new edition of the En- 
cyclopedia Britannica, he will find nothing corre- 
sponding to our gallery. In that thickly settled 
country, the assembly place, so far as the weather 
permitted, was the porte cochere within the house, 
or the court and garden into which this opened. The 
origin of our gallery is therefore unsolved. 

We have no illustrations of the Mobile house of 
1711, but we have pictures of Dauphine Island places 
a few years later. These show one-story houses with 
the chimney at one end, but, with perhaps two ex- 
ceptions, no galleries or even sheds in front. They 
give us one striking feature, however, of Creole 
architecture, — the roof sloping to the front -and to 
the rear. The American pioneer's cabin uniformly 
slopes also to the front, but the house is generally 
longer and the slope therefore is proportionately 
less than with the old Creole houses. These, like 

63 



those of the habitans along the St. Lawrence, have 
a curving slope so as partially to project over the 
front gallery. Tiles and even shingles were rare, 
and thatch, often of palmetto, was common. Some 
examples of early roofs are left in Mobile, but more 
are preserved in the French quarter of the daughter 
city. New Orleans. 

One singular feature was that, although there was' 
plenty of land, the houses were built near the street, 
and, instead of having front yards as with the Eng- 
glish. Flowers as well as vegetables were grown in a 
garden or court behind the house. Glass for win- 
dows was rare even in France, and solid shutters 
were the rule. 

There were few public buildings, and they dif- 
fered from the residences in size rather than other- 
wise. It was not yet the age of stone, hardly even 
of brick except for cellars and the like. Even two- 
story houses were rare. Visitors to and from Mex- 
ico, — New Spain, — were not unknown, but there was 
not here any use of its adobe houses, gradually ap- 
proaching over the narrow streets. The principal 
public buildings of 1711 were inside the fort, and 
they were not of a permanent character until the 
reconstruction of that stronghold of brick. Most of 
the buildings were frame, or wooden frames filled 
in with oyster shell plaster. Whitewash was used, 
and the streets were probably shelled, so far as any- 
thing was done to them at all. Vines and trees 
abounded, and the little city perched on the bluff 
marked by Royal street, dominated by the ramparts 
of Fort Louis, was a picturesque sight to any visitor. 
There was little imposing, perhaps, but there was 
much comfort and the savoir vivre which has mark- 
ed Mobile from the beginning. 

64 



XV.— ANCIENT PLACE NAMES THAT 
SURVIVE. 

The name Mobile comes from the Indians once met 
by DeSoto somewhere below Selma, and whose rem- 
nants were known by Iberville near Mt. Vernon. 
The influence of this tribe was far out of proportion 
to its numbers. The French do not tell us the mean- 
ing of the name. Tradition had no doubt long since 
lost it, and it has been left for modern scholars to 
find that the word probably means Paddlers. — mark- 
ing connection of navigation with even the primitive 
Mobilians. The French settlement was not original- 
ly called Mobile, but Fort Louis, the words de la Mo- 
bile being added to distinguish it from other settle- 
ments of the same name. The name Mobile, how- 
ever, belonged to the bay and river as well as to the 
Indian tribe, and even from the first many of the 
colonists called their new settlement La Mobile. It 
was named for Louis XIV and was not one of the 
many St. Louis settlements. It was analogous to 
the great Port Louis which the king sought to build 
on the west coast of France. The official term Fort 
Louis gradually faded out and La Mobile became 
the name of the town. 

Place names are among the most lasting of human 
things, as we see all over America in the Indian 
names of rivers and mountains. Some aboriginal 
names survive Mobile, such as Chocolochee and 
Chucfey Bays, and that most interesting name 
Chickasabogue, — which points back to some time 
when the Chickasaws were not confined to Northern 
Mississippi as in historic days. "Bogue" was the 
Choctaw word "bok," softened by the French into 

fi5 



'"bayou," meaning the slow, sluggish creek of our 
Gulf regions. But the Indian names immediately 
about Mobile are few, indicating that there was not 
a large native population and that there was an ex- 
tensive French settlement. Some of the Indian 
names are given by the French. So Choctaw Point 
was called for the Indians whom Bienville placed 
there, and the same is true of Tensaw and Apalache 
Rivers further east. 

The dispatches of Bienville do not give many local 
details, but the contemporary notes of Penicaut 
have a great deal of local color. He tells us that he 
was with Iberville on the first explorations of the 
Mobile country in 1699 and afterwards. He notes' 
that our Dauphine Island was named Massacre from 
a large pile of human bones found near its west end, 
that Deer and Fowl Rivers were named for their 
game, and Dog River for a dog lost there. 

The place names immediately about Mobile are 
generally French. Thus One Mile Creek is a descrip- 
tion only; the name is Bayou Marmotte,- — so called 
from a small animal of that name. Similarly, Three 
Mile Creek is really Bayou Chateaugue. commem- 
orating Bienville's sailor brother, one of the most 
interesting characters in colonial history. On Dau- 
phine Island are many French names, — one recalling 
( hateaugue and another merchant Graveline, — and 
on the opposite coast are Coden, La Batre (Battrie) 
and others. Bon Secours Bay, Avhich supplies our 
oysters, was possibly called for the church at Mont- 
real. Notre Dame de Bon Secours, so dear to all 
sailors. High up on Bayou Chateaugue, near the 
present bridge to Toulminville, is a shallow place 
called The Portage, in early American times the 

fifi 



northwest boundary of the city. This ford was on 
the Indian trade route from Mobile to the Choctaw 
Nation. One of the sources of Dog River is Bayou 
Durand, commemorating a somewhat later French 
family, and the district between these streams and 
Mobile River was in French times well settled by 
colonists. Preferably they faced the rivers and 
bayous, for the purpose of hunting, fishing and 
transportation. 

( 'hickasabogue was apparently known to the 
French as St. Louis River, and the magnificent ex- 
panse of land which we call St. Louis Tract was 
called for this stream. It was an early French grant, 
like the Mandeville Tract on the bay below the city, 
although not dating back to the foundation of the 
city in 1711. This St. Louis Tract was originally 
granted to D'Artaguiette after the Apalache Indians 
were moved over to the east side of the Mobile delta 
about the middle of the century, and mark a genu- 
ine extension of the Mobile colony. There was an- 
other grant made somewhat later to Madame De- 
Lusser, the widow of a distinguished officer who fell 
in the Chickasaw war. which was within the present 
city limits and marked the decadence of the city. It 
extended from the river near Theatre street west- 
wardly to the present Protestant Orphan Asylum, 
making a puzzle to modern abstractors of title. 
Madame DeLusser placed her slaves there for the 
purpose of cultivation, and this shows how the town 
must have shrunk towards the end of the French 
period ; for it takes up what in 1711 and later was a 
well occupied part of the river front. 

The streets all had French names, but only Royal, 
Dauphin and possibly St. Louis have retained them. 

fi7 



A dozen or more French names disappeared under 
the later Spanish rule which furnishes so many of 
the present names. 

The St. Louis. Mandeville and DeLusser Tracts, 
and Mon Louis Island. — this last a grant by Cadillac, 
— are probably the only French grants that survive. 
The population, however, was to remain French dur- 
ing the succeeding British and Spanish periods and 
even far down into American times. 



fift 



III. 

UNDER CROZAT AND AFTER. 

XVI.— COLONIAL GOVERNMENT. 

Colonial administration implies two elements, — 
the part played by the home government and that 
by the local officials. France was so centralized 
that the first was much greater than in English 
colonization, and at first this was a source of 
strength. Under Louis XIV the king was supreme, 
but he had many agents. Originally the royal coun- 
cil, made up of the dukes and other nobles, was, with 
the king, the head of the State; but Louis gradually 
raised bourgeois, like Colbert and Louvois, to high 
places, making them all but prime ministers. This 
disgusted St. Simon and the old nobles, but turned 
out well. The minister of the marine, or navy, were 
the Pontchartrains, father and then son. For 
America, colonial control centred at Rochefort, 
which had an intendant, commissaire ordonnateur, 
controleur and treasurer, who made this place for 
France somewhat what the Casa de Contratacion 
had made Seville for Spain. Le Rochelle, nearby, 
was one of the great entrepots of France. 

After the death of Louis XIV, St. Simon succeed- 
ed in having the ministers superseded by committees 
of the council, made up of noblemen. The con- 
trolling mind of the navy council was Toulouse, a 
natural son of Louis XIV and a man of ability. But 
the Regeut found these committees cumbersome and 
gradually drifted back again to ministers of the 
marine and other departments. During both periods 



there was little change at Rochefort. Even colonial 
money was struck there when that came in 1721, al- 
though the nature of the colonial government had 
then varied again and centred in John Law and his 
company. 

The local machinery in Louisiana knew three dis- 
tinct periods. The first, that of settlement, extend- 
ing through the removal to present Mobile, was 
royal and military. The second was from 1712. 
when Crozat was granted the colony as a trade ven- 
ture, like the French and English East India Com- 
panies. The third, — beyond our present investiga- 
tion, — w T as when the Crozat experiment had been 
improved on in 1717 by founding the Mississippi 
Company. What of these methods of government ? 

Mr. Roosevelt is evidently delighted when, in his 
"Winning of the West," he comes to tell how 
American settlers' got together under a tree at Wa- 
tauga and set up a form of government. And justly 
so, for here were frontiersmen illustrating in modern 
times Aristotle's maxim that man is a political ani- 
mal. There is a government wherever people group 
themselves together in a settled community. It is 
found even among children. It can be illustrated in 
the early history of Louisiana as well as at Watauga. 
It is true there was a different race of men, and they 
went about it in a different manner. Louis XIV 
sent over a ready-made government, just as now-a- 
days we get a ready-made cottage from the manu- 
facturers. But in both cases it was what the people 
were used to and it was satisfactory to them. Louis' 
government represented public opinion at Mobile 
as much as that in France. 

70 



Under Iberville and afterwards under Bienville 
the royal commandant was supreme. There was a 
garde magasin, afterwards a commissaire in charge 
of royal property, but the most that he could do was 
to spy on his superior and trust to reports working 
to his prejudice in France. So long as the governor 
was in Louisiana the commissaire had to submit. 
We find him criticized by the commissaire La Salle 
from the beginning, and as a result D 'Artaguiette 
was sent over in 1708 to investigate, and he returned 
four years later and was succeeded by Duclos. Both 
of these men were friends of Bienville. There was 
not then even in France the division which seems ob- 
vious to us between legislative, judicial and execu- 
tive departments, — for the king, and in Louisiana 
his representative, was all three. The governor was 
even notary also and witnessed papers. 

Iberville was in 1703 appointed commandant in 
chief, but was not in Louisiana afterwards and did 
not establish a system. Bienville was practically in 
command until 1713, for although in 1707 he was 
removed, his successor died before reaching America 
and Bienville held over. A check on him was in- 
tended in D 'Artaguiette, but D 'Artaguiette ap- 
proved Bienville's policy. Cadillac succeeded in 
1713, but was not Bienville's equal as an administra- 
tor, and had to make use of Bienville even against 
his will. Bienville was the controlling spirit in 
Louisiana as long as he was in it, no matter who was 
governor. 

We need not think that autocracy was peculiar to 
the French. Even a third of a century later the 
English government of George II pursued the same 
plan, and General Oglethorpe also was a kind of 

71 



Poo Bah in Georgia for a number of years. It is 
probably essential at the beginning of colonial gov- 
ernment. 

In Georgia the trustees came first and only after- 
wards was there royal government, while in Louisi- 
ana the process was reversed. In the English colon- 
ies, whatever the form of government, it was really 
but a shield for popular institutions. In Louisiana 
tlie question was between royalty and a trading 
company and there was no growth of a democraey. 
There were no popular meetings or town councils. 
Such was the genius of the two races. The ex- 
haustion of France in the War of the Spanish Suc- 
eession led Louis XIV to farm out his new province 
nominally to Antoine Crozat. but Crozat represented 
a syndicate. It was after all only a partial abdica- 
tion by the king, for he, while granting a trade mo- 
nopoly, retained power over the army, navy and 
forts. The governor was appointed before Crozat's 
grant, but he retained the same man. Cadillac, who 
had founded Detroit about the same time that Mo- 
bile came into existence. The king says in the 
patent that he had been prevented from building up 
the trade of Louisiana by constant war, and that 
Crozat was such a successful merchant that it was 
hoped he would build up the American trade also. 
Somewhat as Queen Elizabeth had done in the case 
of her explorers, the king required that Crozat 
should turn over to him one-fifth of all gold, silver 
and precious stones discovered, and one-tenth of all 
other minerals. The monopoly of trade was for 
fifteen years, but the property rights were to be in 
perpetuity, subject to "reunion" in the ease of non- 
compliance with the grant. This patent was duly 

72 



registered by the Parlement of Paris, which was 
much more than a record office. Some years later it 
refused to register the grant to John Law. 

The governmental relations of Louisiana were now 
changed under Crozat. The province became nomi- 
nally connected with Canada, but practically it re- 
mained independent. Both had the Coutume de 
Paris as their civil law, but in Louisiana land was 
held in full ownership and not under a seigneur. In 
Canada they had a governor and an intendant, 
somewhat as in each province of France, but there is 
no separate intendant as yet for Louisiana. D'Ar- 
taguiette's coming in 1708 marked a change, but 
this commissaire ordonnateur and his successors at 
this time had not all the powers of an intendant. The 
two provinces were made similar, however, by grant- 
ing to Louisiana in 1712 a Superior Council, such as 
had long existed in the older colonies. This was a 
civil body composed of the governor, first councillor, 
royal lieutenant, two other councillors, attorney- 
general and clerk (greffier.) It had not only execu- 
tive, but had legislative, or at least administrative 
powers, and was a court besides. It heard casis. 
civil and criminal ; from it there was no appeal, but 
there could be a review from above (cassation). 
This was the germ of the judicial system of Louisi- 
ana, and was the closest approach to popular gov- 
ernment that the colony was to show. It was not 
elective but would have been fairly representative 
in any other hands than Cadillac's. 

Crozat managed the trade of Louisiana through 
directors whom he sent out. They were more in 
touch with the actual life of the colony than were 
the royal officers; but neither this nor the similar 

73 



administration later under John Law was strictly 
the government. That rested still with the Regent 
and was exercised through his ministry of the ma- 
rine. Ultimately the king resumed the colony, 
and, after the manner of Canada, established an in- 
tendant for civil justice and police over against the 
military governor; but that was in the thirties. 

XVII.— EXPANSION. 

The strong personality of the Le Moyne brothers 
dominates the founding of Louisiana and the bril- 
liant exploitation by John Law occupies a later stage 
before it settles down to stagnation under royal gov- 
ernors again. Between the founding and the Mis- 
sissippi Bubble Crozat and his ill-liked representa- 
tive Cadillac have been almost forgotten. And yet 
the five or six years under Crozat were those of first 
real growth, and were those in which Louisiana re- 
ceived its greatest expansion. Under the royal gov- 
ernment which succeeded Law, the story crystallized 
around the lower Mississippi, but. with the exception 
of the foundation of the trading post of St. Louis by 
Chouteau and of Vincennes up the Ouabache, and 
they were mere outposts, Louisiana did not grow in 
size after Crozat. It is true he did not formally ac- 
quire the Illinois as Law did, but it was within his 
sphere of influence. 

The earlier period might be thought of as one of 
exploration rather than real settlement, except in 
regard to the capital at Mobile. The Le Moyne 
brothers and Le Sueur spent the first few years 
exploring the Mississippi and its tributaries, but the 
War of the Spanish Succession in Europe prevented 
anything further. While it Avas found better to es- 

74 



tablish the capital on the coast, and not on the great 
river itself, one of the first acts of the French was 
to build a fort called La Boulaye on the lower Mis- 
sissippi. This was under St. Denis and Bienville, 
but after colonial affairs were concentrated at Mo- 
bile even this fort was abandoned. 

The explorations were not merely for geographical 
reasons. It was, as all these efforts were, somewhat 
in the nature of a quest for the Golden Fleece. It 
turned out that there was no gold to be found, and 
even copper was far away at the sources of the Mis- 
sissippi; but profitable fleece there was after all in 
the nature of furs and skins of wild animals. Even 
beaver skins were brought down the Mississippi in 
abundance until the Canadian protest caused this to 
be stopped. With the Indian trade, however, we are 
not at present concerned. Although this was the 
original inducement for the settlements, these set- 
tlements can be considered for their own sakes. And 
it must not be forgotten that, in addition to the in- 
terests of geography and Indian trade, there was' a 
third inspiration, both towards exploration and set- 
tlement. The English colonies bounded Louisiana 
<>n the east and the Spaniards of Mexico bounded it 
on the southwest. In this way from the very first 
there was a desire not only to define the limits, but 
to push French occupation as far into the interior 
as could be held. The voyageurs and afterwards the 
coureurs de bois afforded excellent agents for this 
work, and it may be doubted whether the priests, 
particularly the Jesuits in the North West, who 
came first, did not help more than the others. There 
is no doubt that they were devout men and taught 
religion and incidentally civilization, but they were 

75 



also Frenchmen, and could not, if they had wished, 
avoid attaching the Indians to the French interest. 

( ladillac's chief interest was in trade, and he made 
vigorous commercial attempts towards Mexico, both 
by laud and sea; but all he could accomplish was a 
little in the way of smuggling. Towards Pensaeola 
he was more successful, for the Pensaeola garrison 
was cut off from all Spanish countries aud was 
often in need. Pensaeola could exchange Mexican 
gold and silver for flour and other supplies, while 
Mobile gave obligations redeemable in kind when 
the ships (tame from France. 

Cadillac's term was marked by several great steps 
of expansion. The Natchez in the West, were re- 
duced to subjection and Fort Rosalie (named for 
Mine. Pontchartrain) built there on the Mississippi, 
while in the East among the Alibamons, near our 
Wetumpka, was established Fort Toulouse, called 
for the king's natural son, which was to play a great 
part in international politics. Rosalie's Indian trade 
was not encouraged by Cadillac, but the fort kept 
the river communication open with Canada; Tou- 
louse kept the four branches of the Muscogees free 
from English dominance, and even affected the 
(herokees in the rear of Carolina. It was to be a 
sore thorn in the side of the English of Carolina and 
the future Georgia. 

Bienville was efficient in command, but there is' 
reason to think that he was not a good subordinate. 
He had been the actual instrument for founding 
Fort Toulouse and was also the one who founded 
Fori Rosalie shortly afterwards. It was perhaps a 
stroke of policy when Crozat gave him an indepen- 
dent command of the Mississippi and its tributaries 

7fi 



iii 1716. This afforded Bienville the opportunity 
which he need for influence among all the tribes of 
the Mississippi Valley, and upon it directly or indi- 
rectly rests much of his claim to be one of the 
makers of America. In the West, Natchitoches was 
occupied the next year, and a garrison stationed 
there, nominally to guard against the Spaniards, but 
practically to be a means of an overland smuggling 
trade with Mexico. St. Denis and then La Harpe 
were in command at this point for a number of years 
and did much towards opening the Red River coun- 
try. 

In the other direction there was always close in- 
timacy between Mobile and Pensacola, despite the 
official dispute as to the boundary, and even before 
the short war with Spain there came in 1718 the 
little known incident of the French occupation of 
St. Joseph far to the east. This act, which made 
Pensacola an enclave in French territory, was 
actually in John Law's time, but before he had taken 
any steps towards his project of colonizing the Mis- 
sissippi. The western movement, however, was to 
cause the abandonment of St. Joseph The next year, 
and the Spaniards occupied it themselves. 

French exploration was marked by maps of value, 
leading ultimately to the great work of Delisle in the 
thirties. Probably no small part of the credit for 
the coast charts should be given to Bienville's 
brother Serigny, who came in 1719 in command of a 
squadron and sounded and explored much of the 
Gulf coast. One cannot fail to marvel at this Le 
Moyne family. The death of Iberville in 1706 
seemed only to draw out the strong qualities of the 
remaining brothers. Whether we look at Bienville, 

77 



Chateaugue or Serigny, the South has every cause to 
thank Montreal for her gift. 

.'Attention was to be concentrated henceforth on 
the Mississippi. The country of the Illinois Indians 
had been French headquarters even before the 
founding of Mobile. All voya'geurs touched there, 
as had LeSueur going to the Sioux, and Cadillac 
passed through on his early expedition in sarch of 
gold mines. Kaskaskia grew to be a village of some 
importance, and, while Fort Chartres was actually 
built by Boisbriant under the direction of Law's 
Company, this was merely recognizing what had 
come to be an established post of an earlier date. 
The only reason Crozat had not built it was because 
in his day it was nominally attached to Canada. It 
grew to be a bone of contention between Canada and 
Louisiana, but ultimately under Law became part of 
the Gulf colony. 

The time of Crozat, therefore, is one well worth 
studying. In government, trade and external rela- 
tions it marked a departure, we may say an advance, 
on what it succeeded, and its basis of operations was 
Mobile. Crozat copied the provisions of the trading 
companies of his day, of which the greatest was that 
of the Indies, and applied them to American condi- 
tions, and the much better known epoch of John 
Law, which began with Crozat 's surrender in 1718, 
was in turn merely an expansion of the principles 
under which Crozat had acted. 

XVIIL— THE FIRST LAW BOOK. 

On the table lies a law book which might have 
been Bienville's and was certainly of the edition 
used by French governors of Louisiana. It comes 

78 



down through Alfred Hennen, and has New Orleans 
associations, but it was printed 1664 in the estab- 
lishment of Guillaume de Luyne, law bookseller, at 
the end of the Hall of Merchants, by the statue 
of Justice in the Palace, in old Paris on the island. 
It is a quarto entitled Le Droict Prancois et Cous- 
tume de la Prevoste & Vicomte de Paris, the text in 
large print being followed by a small print com- 
mentary, giving not only royal ordinances, but de- 
cisions of courts, other coutumes, and opinions of 
men learned in the law, This is the fmous book 
known as the Coutume de Paris, early made the law 
of Canada and other colonies, including Louisiana, 
by decrees of Louis XIV. This fourth edition is by 
Maistre Jean Troncon Avocat in Parlement and 
Seigneur of several districts. 

The principal divisions of modern law are Politi- 
cal, Civil and Criminal, and of these Civil is that 
which most affects every-day life. This may be sub- 
divided into the law of persons, property, contracts, 
torts and procedure. With these we exhaust the 
usual categories of law. But we find no such divis- 
ions in English law before Blackstone in the 
eighteenth century, and it would be vain to expect 
them in France. Nevertheless, the English Common 
Law and the French Coutumes ran parallel. This 
book gives French law before any Code Napoleon 
ever dreamed of, although the word "code," bor- 
rowed from the Romans, was not unusual on the 
Continent. The volume is really made up of the 
customs prevailing in the district around Paris, 
dating from the old Teutonic invaders and modified 
from time to time by new customs and slightly by 
royal decrees. There were a dozen or more collec- 

79 



tions of customary law throughout France, originat- 
ing in the different districts in a similar way, and 
largely modified by the Roman Civil Law. They 
really made up the local law of France, and it was 
,i question which, if any, would come to dominate 
the whole country as a Common Law. It is a curi- 
ous thing, that, although the government ecame 
highly centralized under Louis XIV, each province 
retained its customary law. The administration was 
still with the provincial nobility and magistrates, 
superintended by the intendants sent by the king 
from Paris. The Custom of Paris, however, was 
gaining ground, and the king was making it supreme 
throughout all the colonies established by the 
French. In this way it became law r for Louisiana. 

It concerns itself principally with what we would 
call Civil Law. and in particular with the status of 
people and families and of the land which they oc- 
cupy. The first title, therefore, naturally relates to 
fiefs, for feudalism was still supreme. It describes 
the rights of the seigneur, and the rights and duties 
of his tenants as to crops, dues, military and civil, 
inheritance, and the like. Land tenure is possibly 
the most fundamental of all public institutions and 
was to change very much in America from the feu- 
dalism of Europe as a part of the modern trend from 
community to individual control. But in France of 
that day feudalism, resting on service to a superior, 
prevailed with little change from the Middle Ages. 
The seigneur got some profit at every turn. The sys- 
tem existed in Canada, and seigneuries were said to 
he the basis of that colony; but the king seemed to 
feel instinctively that Louisiana colonists, who were 
to be in competition with the British of the Atlantic, 

80 



must have a freer ownership and greater liberties 
than the peasants of France. The general tenure, 
therefore, in Louisiana was roturier, if not franc 
aleu, corresponding closely to the fee simple owner- 
ship of England. This division of the Coutume also 
covers the seigneurs' courts, but these were replaced 
in America by the Superior Council and other courts. 
The second title relates to the seigneurial rents and 
rights (censives et droits), subjects of much the 
same character. 

The third title relates to property, with its divis- 
ions into movables and immovables, — somewhat like 
our personal and real property. Title IV is confined 
to legal proceedings as to property, and Title V also 
relates to personal actions and also those growing 
out of mortgage (hypotheque). The sixth is on 
Prescription, and corresponds to the modern Statute 
of Limitations. This affected all kinds of property. 

Title VII covers Retrait Lagnager, which is a feu- 
dal right. Title VIII is on suits, executions and 
some kinds of contracts, particularly those requiring 
seal. Herein figure especially the rights of the 
bourgeois, or inhabitants of a city, — and there were 
bourgeois for Mobile. Mobile was a bourg. Title 
IX is of Servitudes or Easements, — rights in anoth- 
er's property. AA T ith Title X we reach one of the 
most important characteristics of French law, — the 
community or joint ownership of goods between hus- 
band and wife. This is one of the longest titles and 
followed naturally by the subject of dower. Then 
come two short titles as to guardianship and gifts, 
and next Title XIV on Wills. XV on Successions or 
Administrations is, without doubt the longest of all. 

81 



The concluding Title XVI is on Criees, also of a feu- 
dal nature. 

The book gives lists of seigneuries in which the 
Coutume de Paris prevails, and one of the most in- 
teresting things about it is the Proces Verbal show- 
ing how these customs got edited. The king would 
issue a proclamation calling together the Bishop of 
Paris, councillors and representatives of the many 
different places and institutions subject to this 
Coutume, and, after debate, it would be determined 
that certain old articles were not now conformable 
to the existing custom, and should be rewritten. 

This was not thought of as legislation, law-mak- 
ing, but as declaratory of what the legal custom 
actually was. The revision in question was in the 
year 1580, and was made in the grand hall of the 
Seneschal of Paris. There the Customs were for- 
mally digested and revised under letters patent of 
the king, in proceedings occupying forty-nine quarto 
pages. It is to be noted that amongst the signatures 
and seals were those of Longueil, a name which was 
afterwards to be assumed by the Le Moynes in 
Canada. 

It will be observed, therefore, that the contents of 
this old book illustrate James Bryce's acute remark 
that the Roman Civil Law concerns itself mainly 
with the status of persons and property, including 
family and successions, while English Common Law 
concerns itself more especially with contracts and 
tort. The Civil Law is static, the Common Law 
dynamic. This is natural, as the English nation 
progressed earlier to commercial interests which de- 
pended on individual initiative. 



82 



XIX.— THE SOLDIERS. 

The city plan of 1711 shows a square flag floating 
from a staff in the southeast bastion of Fort Louis. 
It seems to be white and has dots on it : is there any- 
thing to be known about it? 

We have become so accustomed to speaking af- 
fectionately of Old Glory, Union Jack, and the like 
that it gives something of a shock to find that na- 
tional flags are not an ancient institution. One won- 
ders at this in the monarchy of Louis XIV, but in 
point of fact the centralization was about the mon- 
arch and not of the nation, — "L'etat, c'est moi." 
The nobility was exalted and attracted to Ver- 
sailles, although the provinces retained much of 
their colonial peculiarities, but the royal banner was 
not erected into a national ensign. The royal flag 
contained golden fleurs de lis, often three in num- 
ber, on either a blue or white ground, the difference 
depending on circumstances not very clear. Either 
was correct. On the Mobile plat the lilies seem to 
be arranged in a central square, which is unusual. 
The fleur de lis was the emblem of the Bourbon 
family, and it was not until the Great Revolution 
that the slumbering nationality of France awakened, 
and the tricolor became the national flag. Great 
Britain and even the United States had a true flag 
earlier than France. That containing the fleurs de 
lis was rather personal than national, and was used 
as representative of the king rther than as represen- 
tative of the country. 

Mobile was the only American city founded by 
Louis XIV and so it was appropriate that the royal 
banner, with gold lilies on a white ground, should 

83 



wave over it. The navy had a flag sooner than the 
army, and as naval officers governed Louisiana, the 
French flag was more prominent there than even in 
France. 

There has always been more or less rivalry be- 
tween the army and navy. Sometimes the navy has 
had to support the operations of the army, but in 
Louisiana we find the navy supreme. The country 
was necessarily discovered and settled by sea, and 
the government remained in the hands of the Minis- 
try of Marine, corresponding to our Navy Depart- 
ment. Iberville, Bienville and others were naval of- 
ficers, and for this reason we study the army under 
peculiar circumstances. The first garrison was of 
marines, but soon regular companies w T ere raised in 
France to supply Louisiana. The French army un- 
der Louvois, Louis XIV 's great war minister, reach- 
ed a high pitch of development, but the modern 
army organization dates from a later time, — that of 
Frederick the Great. Even under Louvois the regi- 
ments, like the nobility, were called for the provinces. 
Companies were named for the officers w T ho recruit oil 
them. Perhaps the earliest company in Mobile was 
the Polastron, and in 1704 a hundred men came by 
the Pelican to complete the Vaulezard and Chateau- 
gue companies and superseded the Canadians. 

The number of soldiers differed from time to 
time, but after tin 1 War of the Spanish Succession 
became serions in Europe few could be spared for 
America. In 1708 the total garrison was 122. Prob- 
ably never more than four companies were quarter- 
ed in early Mobile, and generally it was two. There 
were two in 17<>S when :!() recruits were sent from 
France. For 1711 the expense was 25,000 livres. in 

84 



1715, 32,000 livres, when Mandeville's and Bajot's 
companies came over. Even in 1717 it was with an 
effort that four companies in addition to those in 
Louisiana were raised in France, and of these but 
three came at one time. And this was in the time 
of Crozat, when peace in Europe and colonial re- 
organization enabled the Regent to do more than 
had been possible under Louis XIV. Many soldiers 
were from Switzerland, for the Swiss, like the 
Italians of old, rented out their men. Not a few 
found their way to Mobile, — the famous Grondel 
for one. 

In Louisiana we find only infantry and coast ar- 
tillery; for the dashing cavalry of Europe would 
have little opportunity in the forests of America. 
Even the artillery was confined to forts on the wa- 
ter; for field artillery was as yet not much used 
and could not readily be moved in a country without 
roads, and Frederick had not yet popularized flying 
artillery. In 1718 there were thirty-five pieces at 
Mobile and Dauphine Island, with and without car- 
riages, and the number was not greatly altered af- 
terwards. Bienville planned to carry some up 
against the Chiekasaws, but was not able to do 
much even in 1736. One of the French cannon can 
still he seen in the Public Square at Mobile. The 
infantry was the great arm of the service. It car- 
ried heavy flintlock muskets, four and a half feet 
long, and surmounted by "baionettes" in 1706, — in- 
struments practically the invention of Vauban. 
They marked progress, for they abolished the old 
pikeman, but were themselves to be abandoned in 
America after some years as unsuited to the tangled 
thickets. Drums were common enough, but bands 

85 



came only later. The favorite song, — almost a na- 
tional air, so Ear as they had one, — was a satire on 
Marlborough, and is preserved to us in "He's a 
Jolly Good Fellow." There was from 1703 a regu- 
lar blue uniform for the royal household troops, but 
each regiment of the time had its own color, with a 
tendency to copy the buttons, prominent lining and 
pockets of Versailles. Three cornered hats, long 
coats and knee breeches were usual, but the eqaulet 
was not invented until the middle of the century. 

The officers generally named under the comman- 
dant are major, captain, lieutenant and enseigne, 
who carried the spontoon or spear as well as a 
sword. Sometimes they are spoken of as "blue" of- 
ficers, and some they are called "reformed". This 
sounds as if they might be Protestants, but in reality 
"reforme" means that they are on half pay. It is 
to be imagined, however, that during the many 
colonial wars they soon earned full pay. a per diem 
of thirty cents. 

Louis XIV invented the barrack system iustead of 
billeting his troops on the country as previously, and 
we find these casernes at Mobile. Most colonial 
towns were walled, but Mobile not only was without 
a wall, but only the garrison on duty occpied quar- 
ters within the fort. The soldiers as well as officers 
lived in houses about town, and this tended to make 
the military fraternize with the habitans. Indeed 
the two classes tended more ami more to become one. 

These habitans gave good account of themselves 
when tin- Spaniards attacked Dauphine Island, and 
they suffered badly when the English raided that 
settlement. The French garrison had severe treat- 
ment later when they attacked a British smuggling 

86 



ship from Jamaica, which had run in past Dauphine 
Island. 

As in the colonial government, so among the armed 
forces the line was not sharply drawn between sol- 
diers and sailors. In America, not a few sailors 
were freebooters, — filibusters, — who had preyed up- 
on the Spanish plate fleet from the Isthmus of Pana- 
ma, or sacked ports on the Spanish Main. A whole 
colony of these volunteered to settle at Mobile, but 
Bienville wisely declined. One of the first pilots 
was the freebooter Le Grave from San Domingo, but 
soon the king maintained pilots for the bay as well 
as for the river. 

There was constant need of the military. When 
St. Augustine was besieged by the British in 1702 it 
sent to Mobile for air. Two years later there was a 
well founded rumor of a squadron fitting out at 
Charleston for the capture of Mobile, — a compliment 
Iberville was planning to return just before his 
death. Perhaps the Spanish Succession War closed 
none too soon, for it was understood that the British 
at Charleston, recognizing the real seat of Latin 
power, were then planning the capture of Mobile. 
When there was peace in Europe the British and 
French colonies were often hostile. Their traders 
were always rivals among the Indian tribes'. Even 
Spaniards were not always friendly, and during the 
short Spanish war Bienville captured Pensacola and 
held it for several years. There was, therefore, con- 
stant need of either offensive or defensive operations 
in the Mobile territory. 

After all, the true defenders of Louisiana were the 
habitans. Although they were not organized as 
militia, they were all hunters and used to arms, even 

87 



where they did not, as coureurs and voyageurs, live 
a part of the time with the Indians in the woods. 
The soldiers themselves showed a power of adapta- 
tion to their new surroundings not found among the 
British. The principal use of soldiers from France 
was to drill the habitans, and at one time we find the 
habitans drilling the soldiers, for the border warfere 
of the South called for scouting much oftener than 
it did for maneuvres. The soldiers from France 
frequently settled in Louisiana after their terms had 
expired, and this tended to give the country a mili- 
tary tinge as well as to unify it. In this, perhaps, 
was the germ of that marked spirit of independence 
in Louisianians on which the governors commented 
a few years later. 

XX.— THE EARLIEST SHIPPING LIST. 

At the time Mobile was founded England had not 
the commanding position upon the sea which she 
afterwards assumed. This was to be the result of 
the Seven Years War, and in 1711 the issue was by 
no means certain. Colbert, one of the early minis- 
ters of Louis XIV, was a commercial genius seldom 
equalled in any country, and he had successfully 
bent his energies towards building up the French 
navy. Not only did he aim at ships for the purposes 
of war, but a merchant marine was even more in his 
mind. 

Even during the war with England, there was sel- 
dom a season when the royal ships did not come from 
Rochefort or La Rochelle to Port Dauphin, the har- 
bor of Mobile. They were all armed, or convoyed by 
naval vessels, and we are fortunate enough to have 
two different colonial narratives which give lists of 

88 



ships. The more detailed is the Journal Historique 
attributed to La Harpe, and this is supplemented by 
the Relation of Penicaut, which sometimes adds a 
few details. 

In 1699, January 31, came the Badine of thirty 
guns, the Marin of thirty, the Francois of fifty, 
and in December La Gironde of forty-six guns, 
and La Renommee of fifty, — a year later she carried 
fifty-six. Iberville's first voyage was this on the 
Badine, and his second was that on the Renommee. 
All vessels seem to have staid two or three months in 
port. These visited Biloxi, new Ocean Springs. 

In 1701, May 30, came L'Enflammee of twenty-six 
guns, and on December 18, La Renommee and Le 
Palmier, and it was from his sickbed on the Renom- 
mee that Iberville directed the foundation of Mobile. 
These were, therefore, the first vessels visiting the 
port of Mobile. Iberville procured a mast for the 
Palmier from the new settlement. 

In August, 1703, came La Loire, one of the few 
vessels mentioned with nothing said about the num- 
ber of guns. She may have been a merchant vessel, 
and in fact we are told that she was a chaloupe, a 
smaller kind of sailing vessel. 

In July, 1704, there arrived the Pelican of fifty 
guns, one of the largest ships of the navy, but un- 
fortunately bringing from her stop at San Domingo 
that first visitation of yellow fever, which proved so 
fatal.- Iberville was to have come on her, but was 
detained in France by sickness. It so happened he 
never revisited his colony after the first three 
voyages, as he was employed on warlike expeditions 
in the West Indies, and in 1706 died of yellow fever 
at Havana. 

89 



No vessel is noted for 1705, but we are told that 
La Rosaire of forty-six guns was wrecked at Pensa- 
cola under Vice Admiral L'Andeche. 

For June, 1706, is noted L'Aigle of thirty-six guns,, 
convoying a brigantine with supplies ; Chateaugue 
was in command. There was also a fifty gun vessel 
which came only to Pensacola and sent over supplies, 
— for one thing, curiously enough, "legune," vege- 
tables ! The next year the tables were turned, as the 
British Indians burned all Pensacola outside of the 
fort and Bienville assisted the garrison with food. 
La Harpe gives the Renoramee as arriving in Feb- 
ruary, 1707. 

It is this time that Penicaut assigns the tragical 
account of the St. Antoine. She was commanded 
by St. Maurice of St. Malo, and had under the bow- 
sprit as her figurehead a wooden statue of St. An- 
toine. The irreverent sailors in some way dislodged 
the figrue, tied a stone around its neck, and threw 
it into the sea. Shipwreck immediately followed at 
the east end of Dauphine Island. 

Then follows a blank for 1709 and 1710, except in 
brigantines for the coasting trade to the Spanish 
colonies and French Islands, and in tact down until 
1711, covering the period of want at Old Mobile, 
and the remival to the present site. Public dis- 
asters and famine in Frence prevented the gov- 
ernment from sending aid to the American colonies, 
and threw governmental responsibility on Bienville 
in Louisiana, and even supplies when they came were 
from a private source. In September of that year 
there came again the Renommee, with abundant 
supplies, — a vessel which Grace King says is truly 
"The Renowned" of our early history. This voyage 

90 



was a private venture, the monarch supplying the 
ship, and Remonville, ever friendly to the colony, 
the cargo. 

For 1712 we are given the St. Avoie, a trading ves- 
sel and not a part of the king's navy. It came under 
the pious La Vigne Voisin, who built a church at his 
favorite Dauphine Island. 

Peace was signed with England, and in May, 1713, 
the Baron de la Fosse, of forty guns, arrived with 
Cadillac, the new governor, Duclos, the new com- 
missaire, and the whole slate of officers which su- 
perseded Bienville and his Canadians, besides 400,- 
000 livres of merchandise. La Harpe also mentions 
the Louisiane of twenty guns for this year, and Peni- 
caut the Dauphine. 

For 1714 we nave La Justice of two hundred tons, 
which sank in the old channel of the port on Dau- 
phine Island. The Dauphine seems to have come 
back early in this year, and La Harpe mentions her 
as also returning in August, 1715. Crozat intended 
building a merchant marine of brigantines to ply 
from a central magasin on Dauphine Island ; but 
with the peace the Spaniards closed their ports to 
their old allies, and nothing was left but smuggling. 
Crozat was not liberal himself. In this year a frigate 
from the great port of La Rochelle and a brigantine 
from Martinique were both turned away; for no ship 
could trade at Mobile except those of Crozat. He 
consented to the formation at Mobile of the first 
Southern syndicate, — St. Denis, Graveline. De Lery, 
La Freniere, Beaulieu and Derbanne. — and they 
made a brave attempt to trade overland to Mexico. 

La Paix of twelve guns was sole arrival for 1716, 
but next year not only does Penicaut give La Dau- 

91 



phino, but he and La Harpe have a good deal to say 
about the Duelos and Paon, each of thirty guns, and 
La Paix. We even have pictures of these vessels, 
and the Paon had the remarkable experience of 
coming through a 21-foot channel into the port at 
Dauphine Island, only to have a storm fill the chan- 
nel with sand behind her and imprison her. She was 
finally taken out by an inward passage after being 
lightened to ten feet. 

In February. 1718. came John Law's first vessels, 
the Neptune, Dauphine and Vigilante, with commis- 
sions for his new officials. Shipping still frequented 
Dauphine Island, but mainly to bring colonists for 
the Mississippi concessions. From the island they 
proceeded in smaller boats to their destinations. In 
this way Dauphine Island was the great distributing 
point for the Mississippi Bubble. Biloxi now super- 
sedes Mobile as the capital. 

XXL— THE CRADLE AND THE GRAVE. 

It is a truth which we have learned from Malthus, 
that, while the population of a country may outrun 
the means of subsistence, nevertheless there is a 
smaller birth rate in times of distress than in other 
years. The colony of Louisiana during its first 
years offers a good field of observation as to this 
and other social laws. On account of the prevalence 
of war in Europe and the British predominance on 
the ocean, but few people came before the Peace of 
Utrecht, and so Louisiana presented something in 
the nature of the closed tube which physicists use 
in their experiments. 

The settlement at Biloxi, — our Ocean Springs, — 
was only temporary and disastrous in itself. Not 

92 



only did Sauvole, the commandant, but not a few 
of the one hundred and fifty people noted as resi- 
dents die in 1701. The coureurs de bois were by no 
means ideal colonists, but it is to be remembered 
that these Canadians, brave if rude, were the origin- 
al nucleus of the colony, and when later anchored by 
marriage made good citizens. At the time of the re- 
moval to Fort Louis on Mobile River the colonists, 
although reinforced, were in all only one hundred 
and thirty. They were increased the next year by 
some eighteen passengers, most of whom probably 
remained, and in 1704 we have the first real census 
returns. This year, before the inroad of yellow 
fever in the fall, was probably the banner year for 
this up-river settlement. We are told that the town 
covered one hundred and ninety arpens, — an arpent 
being a little less than an acre, — and consisted of 
eighty one-story houses. In these lived twenty-seven 
families, including ten children, — three girls and 
seven boys. 

The birth rate means more than immigration, es- 
pecially if there is rivalry with another race, for it 
shows virility and contentment and r^~ Ui e promise 
and potency of a future nation. Even if numbers of 
immigrants and of birth were the same, immigrants 
might not all be desirable or might not assimilate, 
while the natural increase by what the Shorter Cate- 
chism calls ordinary generation makes up a homo- 
geneous people. The church registers do not record 
the marriages until after the capital period, and it 
would not be fair to rely upon the incidental men 
tion of couples, important as this is in tracing an- 
cestry. Fortunately the Baptismal Register sur- 
vives, even if it be not complete. The first two 

93 



years passed without any record and then October 
4, 1704, conies the first birth, that of Francois, son 
of Jean de Can (properly given elsewhere as- Le 
Camp) and Magdeleine Robert, his wife. Francois 
Le Camp, therefore, was the first Creole of the 
colony, a title which after his removal passed to an- 
other as a mark of honor. There was in 1704 also a 
LeMay child, which died, however, within a few 
days. Besides white families, there were eleven 
slaves, all Indian, and one hundred and eighty sol- 
diers. These families were constituted in part of 
the twenty-three young women who came over in 
the Pelican that fall, and were married within one 
month. The next year came another birth, that of 
Jacques, son of maitre canonier Roy, but the church 
records entirely fail for 1706, despite the Pelican 
marriages. In 1706 we are told that there were 
nineteen families, and that the total population was 
eighty-two. 

In the year 1707 (that in which there was the at- 
tempt to supersede Bienville by another governor), 
was socially not without significance as marking 
the birth of a child half negro, half Choctaw, but yet 
more as showing the rapid increase of white births 
to seven, of whom all but two were from October to 
November. Names of all kinds as well as trades 
and offices increase from this year, and in 1708 we 
find ten births, of whom all but three range from 
January 30 to June 18, and the remainder are in Oc- 
tober and December. In 1709 were seven, of w T hom 
the majority were from February to May. and the 
others in August and October. The population at 
this time was made up of one hundred and twenty- 
two soldiers, seventy-seven habitans, and eighty In- 

94 



dian slaves, the habitans almost equally divided be- 
tween men, women and children. It was in the year 
1708 that the Renommee came with supplies after 
over a year of want. Shortly previous to this Cha- 
teaugue's traversier, which brought the goods from 
Dauphine Island, had been accidentally sunk, and, 
although this loss was supplied, there was a failure 
of crops and the curious entry of the bringing of 
vegetables out from France. The next year was dis- 
astrous on account of the overflow, and the removal 
of the town to the new site. Accordingly in sym- 
pathy with public distress the birth rate falls off; 
scattered through 1710 were three births and 1711 
records none. 

Even on the new site the recovery was slow, for 
there were no births until the second half of 1712, 
and of these two one was illegitimate. Indeed, 
Crozat's exploitation was not reflected in the birth 
register for several years. In the year 1713 we are 
told that the total population had become four 
hundred, including twenty negro and other slaves, 
but as this also embraces the garrison, generally 
amounting to one hundred and fifty soldiers, we can 
reckon the habitans as not over two hundred. In 
this year was the second consignment of marriage- 
able young women, there being twenty-five girls 
brought from the Province of Brittany, — where per- 
haps even then resided the ancestors of Ernest 
Renan. 1714 shows two births, one of these of a 
TVnsaw wife of a colonist. 1714 shows none at all 
of whites, and only two Indian. In January of this 
year a vessel arrived at Dauphine Island with sup- 
plies from France, but sank in the old channel, and 
the only relief was that Chateaugue obtained some 

95 



supplies from Vera Cruz. With 1715, however, 
peace and < Irozat have at least twelve births to their 
credit, almost all in the winter and in the fall. This. 
however, was the best year, for 1716 and 1717 each 
show eight, the latter mainly in the fall, and 1718 
only four. 

1717 was the year marking the change of govern- 
ment from Crozat to John Law, and the population 
suddenly jumped to seven hundred because of the 
large immigration, but the births are stationary at 
eight, mainly in the fall, and the next year there 
were six. John Law sent over so many colonists that 
the registers now assume a different appearance, 
and Huve and the occasional Davion have their 
hands full of baptisms. Of the fifteen births in 1719 
only three occur after June, while of the twenty- 
three of 1720 the majority are from August on, and 
the nineteen of 1721 are almost equally divided. 

These about reached high-water mark, for the cap- 
ital had now been removed to the Mississippi. Nev- 
ertheless, immigrants came and after a fall to twelve 
births in each of the years 1723 and 1724 T the num- 
ber twenty-three was reached again the next year, 
for, although relatively Mobile was less important, 
it continued to grow in actual size. 

The situation of the colony, distressing as it was, 
at least permits an interesting study in one respect. 
The two periods of war and peace, of about ten years 
each, present somewhat different aspects, but each 
shows October as the month of most numerous 
birth s. On the whole, there were twenty-one for 
that month as against seventeen and sixteen for 
March and February, which rank next in order, 
while January and December rank next, each with 

9fi 



thirteen births. The least prolific month is July, 
with only three to its credit for the eighteen years 
of record. The physiological side of birth months 
is an interesting subject itself. 

The general increase follows very closely those of 
the years of peace, but the troubled times preceding 
1714 shows a somewhat different story. October is 
then the most proilfic, March being next also, but 
far behind, but not only did August equal February 
for the third place, but January and December had 
no place much better than the lowest, omitting Sep- 
tember, which recorded no birth at all. The rate is 
perhaps one to every ten families each year. The 
population would double about every thirty years 
if nobody died. 

It is unfortunate that we cannot supplement this 
study of the Baptismal Register by study of the 
death register, but the latter record was not begun 
until 1726. We know that in 1704 there was a Visi- 
tation of what is supposed to be yellow fever and 
which was very destructive, sweeping off half the 
sailors of the Pelican and thirty of the newly arrived 
soldiers. At that time also the great explorer Tonty 
died, and a number of the colonists. Fever is com- 
mon in newly settled countries, particularly where, 
as in this case, the settlement is in the lowlands. In 
order to better communication the inhabitants at 
first settled on the rivers and other streams and 
were thus exposed to malaria. The same trouble oc- 
curred in Virginia among the English, but in both 
provinces the colonists gradually became acclimat- 
ized, and we have less complaint in subsequent years. 
Quinine was not yet known in Louisiana, although 
it had been discovered by the Indians in Peru. We 

97 



do not hear as yet even of coffee, which was to prove 
something of a specific against malaria. As they 
learned to live on the sea coast, or on bluffs and 
away from the lowlands and bottoms, the Creoles 
came to be a longlived race. 

XXII.— THE INDIAN TRADE. 

The statement of William Garrett Brown that the 
fate of North America was decided by traders' on the 
Gulf coast seems a paradox, and yet there is prob- 
ably much truth in it. These men represented the 
two hostile civilizations of France and England, 
then dividing the world. The country in which they 
contended was the Alabama-Tombigbee Basin, ex- 
tending east ami west almost from the Mississippi 
River to waters draining to the Atlanic, and from 
the Gulf up to the Ohio Valley. The English of Vir- 
ginia and afterwards of Carolina carried their wares 
from the ocean across the watershed to the Alabama- 
Tombigbee Basin, while on the other hand the 
French had a nearer port at Mobile and water com- 
munication the whole way into this interior. 

To understand the situation it must be remember- 
ed that three of the greatest Indian tribes upon the 
American continent inhabited this Basin. The 
Chickasaws were at the sources of the Tombigbee 
and the Choctaws nearer its mouth, while the Mus- 
cogees in their four divisions lived on the upper 
Alabama, and the Cherokees, a fourth great tribe, 
occupied the mountains to the northeast. These 
tribes communicated also by land trails, indistinct 
to the white men. but well understood by the In- 
dians. Some were made by prehistoric animals or 
by the buffaloes, and they were not only the aborigin- 
es 



la roads, but the routes of the first European ex- 
plorers, of colonists, and sometimes even of our rail- 
ways. There is no doubt that they served for the 
native trade long before Columbus' day. Just as 
French was the language of commercial develop- 
ment in the East, so in this Western territory the 
Mobilian tongue furnished the trade jargon from the 
Atlantic to the Mississippi. This seems to point 
back to a time, perhaps before DeSoto, when the 
Mobile tribe was the head of a great confederacy. 
A French map of 1733 shows "Old Mobilians" not far 
from our Claiborne, besides those near Mount Ver- 
non on Mobile River. 

The aboriginal commerce related mainly to wea- 
pons and ornaments, and arrow-heads and other in- 
struments are found made of stone brought some- 
times from a great distance. The trade after the 
white men came was in clothing and blankets, which 
simple enough, but superior to the old skins and 
furs, and also in liquor, and. curiously enough, to- 
bacco and tools. The three implements which have 
most influenced civilization are the plow, the anvil 
and the saw. but in French times these were special- 
ties even among the Europeans, and only the axe 
and mattock were much used by the natives. Among 
the English trade goods we also find hoes; but the 
Indian was rather a hunter than a farmer. At first 
the Spaniards and even the French would not supply 
arms to the savages, but very soon guns and ammu- 
nition became staples of trade. 

The earliest explorers hunted for gold and silver, 
and even Cadillac did not give over the search ; but 
they soon found, that, although there was little gold. 
the furs and skins which the Indians brought fur- 



nished a basis of exchange. A deerskin became the 
standard of value by which everything else was 
measured. Twice a year, in spring and fall, the furs 
and skins were brought by canoe or packhorse to 
Mobile, or later to Fort Tombecbe on the one river 
and to Toulouse on the other, and thence shipped to 
Mobile for export. In return blue and red cotton 
goods, blankets, ribbons, guns and ammunition, 
brass kettles, axes and hatchets were taken back to 
the nation. The French called their cloth Mazamet 
and Limbourg, while the British had their strouds 
from Gloucestershire ; but the proverb as to the rose 
has analogies in dry goods also. 

The French trader was really a royal officer. If 
he went into the woods as a coureur it was as the 
agent of the commandant at the fort. On the other 
hand, the British trader was generally a Scotchman 
trading for himself. 

Several stages in the history of the trade should 
be noted. Before Mobile was settled the British 
were supreme, and after Mobile was built the first 
years were of uncertainty ; but the easy water com- 
munication soon gave the coast country to the 
French and confined the British to the Cherokees 
and Chickasaws. This result was largely accom- 
plished by the energy of Bienville and was sealed 
by his building Fort Toulouse among the Alibamons 
in 1714. The time of Crozat was essentially a trade 
epoch, although so far as it M y as successful this was 
due to Bienville, whom the Indians loved for his 
fairness, and not to the governor Cadillac, who early 
offended them. Cadillac had been in charge of De- 
troit, where the beaver trade centred, and could not 
get used to the less valuable products of his South- 

100 



ern government. He almost lost the Choctaws. As 
late as 1715 English influence was so strong even 
among the friendly Choctaws that only two villages, 
— Tchicachae and Conchaque, — remained friendly to 
the French. Bienville's success in winning back the 
upper Choctaw villages was so complete that it has 
been forgotten. We are apt to think that what he 
effected had always h^een so ; but it was a black day 
when he had to give refuge to these two villages 
and started the work of reclaiming the others. By 
1718, however, — with Cadillac gone, — the tables 
were turned and the French traders from Toulouse 
had practically run the English out of the Alibamon 
territory. 

The rivalry was between Mobile and Charleston. 
Mobile traders had establishments where Nashville 
now stands and shipped from Toulouse beyond 
modern Atlanta. The Charleston trade crossed the 
Savannah River near where Augusta was to be, — 
indeed the future Georgia city w T as largely a Charles- 
ton outpost, — and thence forked to the Cherokees on 
the north and to the Creeks on the west. The Brit- 
ish trader crossed the rivers above the French forts 
and passed through the rough country of northern 
Alabama to the upper tribes of the Muscogees, 
Chickasaws, or even to the Choctaws. The first, 
called the Creeks by the British and the Alibamons 
by the French, were a bone of contention, while the 
Chickasaws' at first favored the French .but then 
went over wholly to the British. The Choctaws in 
later years were always in the French interest. Sta- 
tistics are wanting, but it is clear that the Indian 
trade was very large and constituted the basis of 
European diplomacy in the South. 

101 



The French were more liberal in their presents. 
In 1711 they gave 4,000 livres, about what they spent 
on their fortifications. The more presents, the less 
fortifications necessary. An epitome of the case 
lies in the fact that Charleston was fortified, while 
Mobile, nearer the savages, never had a wall. 

XXIII.— CONCLUSION. 

Mobile was founded as the basis of French colonial 
effort on the Gulf of Mexico, and was the first capi- 
tal of Louisiana. This province embraced the whole 
of the Mississippi Valley, with the Alabama-Tombig- 
bee Basin added on the east and with indefinite 
claims to the Texan coast towards the west. We 
have seen the town on its first site at Twenty-seven 
Mile Bluff, and afterwards on the permanent loca- 
tion where Mobile River joints the Bay. We have 
seen it not only firmly established, but in Crozat's 
time reaching out iu all directions towards the real- 
ization of its American empire. 

Its story up to this removal is that of an earnest 
effort to found a French colonial capital in America, 
and, as a second generation was now 7 coming to ma- 
turity, it could be called the First Creole Capital. 
Whether regarded from the point of view T of its 
sites, from the political side of governmental experi- 
ments, from the economic attempt of Crozat to build 
up a monopoly, or in other ways, it was an essay full 
of interest, and not without a measure of success. 

Its supremacy was imperilled by the formation of 
Law's Company to settle the Mississippi Valley it- 
self, which led to the removal of the colonial offices. 
Mobile ceased to be the capital, but it never ceased 

102 



to be important, its historical importance was 
henceforth based on other grounds. 

And while the main development left the Ala- 
bama-Tombigbee Basin for the greater Mississippi 
Valley, this was only an expansion of what had be- 
gun at Mobile, just as Law's Company was an ex- 
pansion of Crozat's. The expansion was by men 
who had received their training at Mobile, now 
transplanted to a larger field to put in execution 
the lessons they had learned. And, moreover, the 
future history of the Alabama-Tombigbee Basin it- 
self was to be no small one. It remained the bul- 
wark of Louisiana against the English on the At- 
lantic as well as the centre of French Indian trade 
and policy throughout the entire South. If there 
must come a conflict between the French aud Eng- 
lish civilizations for the control of the Mississippi 
Valley, it would be fought out by traders and by sol- 
diers on this Gulf coast or in the mountains between 
the Mobile and Georgia frontiers. 

The foundation of Mobile was therefore one step 
in the long duel of Teuton and Latin which has pre- 
vailed since the days of Rome, which reached a 
crisis in the Anglo-French wars of the eighteenth 
century, and culminated in Napoleon's day. It took 
in the world from India to America. British colonies 
contended with Canada on the north and Louisiana 
on the west until the war ended with the Peace of 
Paris in 1763. Although Canada has attracted more 
attention, Louisiana was the greater prize, — -and 
Louisiana became an accomplished fact with the set- 
tlement of Mobile in 1702 and its upbuilding on a 
new site in' 1711-1718. 

103 



The masterful Teuton thinks that he is conquer- 
ing the world, but the study of races seems to show, 
that, while he may have to create a ruling class, his 
civilization is made up of institutions which he 
adopts from the East or the South. Even his blood 
is less persistent than that of the darker races. The 
blonde type is yielding to the brunette. It may be 
that the historical contributions of the Franco-Span- 
ish type in America are not yet closed. Already 
the old Creole has influenced the whole Mississippi 
Valley more than the American generally realizes. 

Whatever the future, whatever the silent in- 
fluences since the Treaty of Paris, the colonial 
period is becoming clearer as we study its records. 
The contest of the British and Latin civilizations for 
what is now the United States was in the South East, 
where Louisiana adjoined the British colonies. As 
the beginning of British institutions was at James- 
town and Plymouth Rock, the beginning of Louis- 
iana was at the founding of Mobile. 



104 




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